A Nation Denied: Ukraine’s Battle for History

PBS: Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 September at 9pm

This insightful documentary examines how Russia’s attack on Ukraine is in one sense an attack on the idea of a distinct Ukrainian history. We explore the origin of this battle of competing histories from founding myths through to the creation of a Ukrainian Soviet Republic, its ultimate breakup and the struggle for statehood.

Far from being one sided the documentary is unflinching in describing the horrors of the deliberate starvation that Ukrainians suffered in the 1930s as well as their collaboration with the invading Nazis and participation in the slaughter of native Jewish populations.

This groundbreaking film uses material from the Ukrainian and Soviet archives, as well as recent inter- views with internationally renowned experts includ- ing Yale professor Timothy Snyder, Russian history blogger Tamara Eidelman, Eastern European history expert Andreas Kappeler, and Ukrainian film-maker Sergei Loznitsa.