Farewell, Eastern Europe: A Personal History of Divided Lands. Jakub Mikanowski

“Farewell, Eastern Europe” is an epic and literary-documentary saga about the diversity of a region that fell out of fashion after the collapse of the Soviet Union. American historian and journalist Jakub Mikanowski leads the reader through the centuries from the Baltics to the Black Sea – from the Christianization of pagans and medieval kingdoms to the rise of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the rise and fall of communism.

We are presented with a world past where the destinies of states and peoples are intertwined: here Catholic and Orthodox shrines, mosques and synagogues coexist, wars and uprisings rage, empires disappear and nations are born. With the help of family legends and archival finds, the author conveys the voice of generations – Christians, Muslims, Jews and Roma who lived, loved and suffered in this troubled land.

This book is an elegy and a rethinking of the vibrant and distinctive cultures that stubbornly continued to exist on the margins of Europe. The history of these divided lands is full of violence and foreign domination, but before us is not a reflection of the West, but a unique world with the right to its own individuality. In the current war between the plurality of experiences and the dictates of unification, it is Ukraine that has become the last line of defense of Eastern Europe - a space of freedom, stability and diversity.