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Chia Pao-yu, the Beijing University democracy activist, was not executed after the June 1989 Tiananmen Square repression, as was rumored in the prequel, Year of the Earth Serpent Changing Colors. Instead, he escaped to Paris, where he lives in exile during the years of the Bataclan terrorist attacks, the Yellow Vest protests, and the COVID-19 (or Horseshoe Bat) pandemic. Chia works for the Foundation for Human Rights Forever under the direction of the heiress, Bereft Laplante--who, as he belatedly learns, had helped finance his escape from China, but who also funds questionable activities not related to purely humanitarian causes. With Foundation support, Chia participates in the protests in Hong Kong before publishing his Planetary Manifesto. And after taking part in an international conference on the "Future of China" in Washington DC, he warns of the rise of Chinese-inspired authoritarianism that seeks to subvert American and European democracies. At the same time, he fears the real possibility of war--if the Balding Eagle and the Red Dragon cannot eventually see eye to eye. Forced to quit the Foundation after Laplante sexually assaults him, and showing signs he is losing his sanity, Chia mysteriously disappears in a suspected trade-off for a Western spy held by Beijing--at least that is the official story.

Are you studying a subject in the humanities or social sciences? Do you have a long essay, dissertation, or thesis to write? This short guide is for international students, mature students, all students uncertain as to how to proceed. You won't have time to read more than you need to, so the student-friendly text is kept to a minimum. Advice is given concerning your title, what you might cover in your introduction; your review of the literature--your analysis of the 'received opinion' on the subject; your own counter-argument; your sources and use of evidence; and your conclusion. A number of short, illustrative passages are included, written by distinguished authors, as well as a summary structure plan, and exemplar essay.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU's ambition to develop "strategic and ambitious partnership(s) based on common values and rules, mutual interests and commitments, as well as shared ownership and responsibility" (EEAS) in the countries of the Eastern Partnership has come under much pressure. Whatever remains of this ambitions in the South Caucasus has turned into a frantic attempt to re-define the EU's role in this new geopolitical scenario. This collection focuses on Armenia and Georgia as the two "frontline" countries in which the beneficial role of the EU and the supposed commonality of values are being questioned most rigorously. Using the perspective of authors from the region, this volume offers unique insights into the debates and perceptions of the EU's involvement in the South Caucasus.

What are the Seven Deadly Sins? Are they still acknowledged breaches of morality and ethical norms in our Western societies in the Third Millennium? The Seven Deadly Sins present an ethical catalog, a moral mirror for princes and rulers that originates in Catholic Christianity. This little book, however, is not primarily about religion, on the contrary: It respects the Greek origins of Western thought that have survived beyond Christian faith, praises the scientific achievements of the Enlightenment, and looks at our contemporary world with critical eyes. It is a unique blend of scientific analysis, analysis of Western contemporary culture and, lastly, satire. The authors, a group of friends living in Europe, present diverse views on a wide range of topics. Their principal intention is to open a debate about ethics, science, scepticism, and hypocrisy. A thought-provoking and inspiring read--about the present as well as the future.

Ukraine expert Winfried Schneider-Deters intervenes in the debate on Russia's war against Ukraine with three timely essays, written during the winter of war in Kyiv in 2022 / 2023. He critically discusses the ambivalent reception of Russian aggression not only in German society. Calls by intellectuals to stop arms deliveries and to negotiate and compromise with the aggressor are, in effect, calls for surrender; in the author's view, their signatories are thus making themselves into Putin's "useful idiots." Schneider-Deters points out the parallels between Putin and Hitler and analyzes the Russian "Weimar syndrome" after the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the roots of the current, specifically Russian fascism, the "Rushism". He also gives a detailed account of the crimes committed by Russia's armed forces in Ukraine under international law. The International Criminal Court in The Hague does not have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, the "supreme international crime"; Schneider-Deters discusses the possible steps to create a new international tribunal along the lines of the Nuremberg trials, a "Nuremberg II", in order to be able to hold the aggressor Putin criminally responsible.

This book examines the recent rise of the radical right in Italian politics in the years 2018-2022. The authors set the rise of the radical right within the context of electoral volatility and fragmentation that has underpinned post-1945 Italian politics and examine right-wing party competition between the two main radical right parties, Lega and Fratelli d'Italia, alongside the important shifts that have transformed the traditional center-right coalition (coalizione di centro-destra) in Italian politics. The volume concludes with implications for the global trajectory of the rise of different populist and radical right parties across Europe and the European Union, with many of these radical right parties now becoming significant political players across the world.

This collection of essays and articles, written between 2019 and 2023 for such outlets as The Daily Beast and The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), illuminates recent Russian international affairs through the lens of Moscow's propaganda tactics. For more than two decades, the Kremlin's agitators have been tasked to lay, in advance, the groundwork for various domestic and foreign actions by the regime of Vladimir Putin. Thus, Russian state-controlled media provides crucial clues for deciphering the--often sinister--goals that the government of Russia was and is planning to pursue abroad, from election interference to military invasions. The goal of the sum of these activities is the establishment of a new world order--with Russia at its helm. Before the large invasion of 24 February 2022, Russian state media portrayed the West as incapable of opposing Russian aggression. Putin's propagandists cheered for war against Ukraine, predicting it would be quick and victorious. Misreading the ability of the West to unite and miscalculating Russia's capabilities in confronting determined Ukrainians, Russia ended up in a quagmire of its own creation. In 2023, Putin's decorated propagandists face the possibility of future scrutiny and potential prosecutions for their proactive incitement of genocide. They unravel, along with the Kremlin, having to tell multiple conflicting stories and condemn the same players they used to lionize. Backed into the corner, they resort to nuclear threats and demand even more blood from Ukraine, whose only crime is its desire for democracy and freedom.

Michael Thumann has been reporting from Eastern Europe for the leading German intellectual weekly Die Zeit for over 25 years. His book chronicles Russia's descent into an increasingly totalitarian dictatorship and the path leading to the escalation of Putin's imperialist war in 2022. The dictator and his entourage want to take revenge for the democratic opening after 1991 and supposed humiliation by the West. Putin's rule is becoming more radical. It is the most threatening regime in the world.

David Satter is one of the world's leading commentators on Russia. The two-volume book series Never Speak to Strangers is a collection of his articles and essays. Volume two includes articles about the Russia-Ukraine war and argues that this tragic conflict was preventable. David Satter's writings and interviews describe the psychological roots of the conflict. Picking up where the first volume left off, the second volume of Never Speak to Strangers includes material on the historical and psychological roots of Russian aggression, the Yeltsin and Putin regimes, and, in particular, Russia's war against Ukraine. David Satter shows that change could come to Russia in the wake of a defeat in Ukraine, but external events will not be enough to divert Russia permanently from foreingn aggression and internal repression. For that, what is required is something more fundamental, a recognition that world order must be based on universal moral values and a rejection once and for all of Russia's "special way".

American-born Larissa Babij is at home in Kyiv when Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Her grandparents left Ukraine amidst the violence of World War II, and nearly 80 years later, she is fleeing the advancing Russian army. A Kind of Refugee chronicles the first year of all-out war in Ukraine through vivid dispatches that Babij sent to readers abroad. In cities flooded with refugees and bustling with humanitarian aid efforts, or while supporting an innovative military unit making DIY drones, Babij examines Ukrainian cultures of cooperation. Reflecting on her American upbringing, she ponders the premium that Western societies--shaped by the traumatic history of WW II--place on security. When she returns to Kyiv, sirens, Russian missile strikes, and long periods of darkness organize her days. This moving account of taking responsibility for your home and your history concludes with several essays on theater published between 2015 and 2021. Written with a fierce love for Ukraine and its people, this book is a testament to the courage of ordinary people committed to freedom while defending their homeland.

On Bonifratrow Street is the story of how Michael Katz survived the Holocaust as a Jewish boy hiding 'in plain sight' on the streets of Warsaw after escaping from Janowska concentration camp in Lviv (Lwow). He moved to Warsaw under an assumed name and joined the Polish resistance. Michael fought in the Warsaw Uprising. He was one of the remaining group of 200 people to evacuate Warsaw. This book tells his exceptional story.

This monograph explores the recent political history of Ukraine from a novel diachronic and comparative point of view. A largely unknown period of history for non-Ukrainians, the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), which emerged at the end of World War I, is today still a hot topic for Ukrainians. The years of 2013-2022 were an equally dramatic period with a number of unsolved problems and conflicts, while the large Russian invasion into Ukraine since February 2022 marks a new epoch, which is impossible to assess yet. The periods of 1917-1921 and 2013-2022 exhibit both, astonishing similarities and deep differences. The UPR period was one of the few times when the Ukrainian nation gained full political autonomy as a separate state. That is why the story of this book resonates with the thoughts and feelings of many citizens of Ukraine. It presents an insightful glance into different stages of recent Ukrainian history for a non-Ukrainian audience. Petik highlights why and how the UPR is not only important for academic history but also for the identity and self-perception of the Ukrainian nation.

Since 1997, FORUM has been an integral part of the landscape of European studies. In addition to contemporary history, it offers insights into the history of ideas and reviews books on Central and Eastern European history. It offers more than just history--for instance, interdisciplinary discussions by political scientists, literary, legal, and economic scholars, and philosophers. FORUM sees itself as a bridge between East and West. Through the translation and publication of texts and contributions from Russian, Polish, and Czech researchers, it offers the Western reader access to the scholarly discourse of Eastern Europe. The 'short' 20th century is one of the best-documented eras in history. Nevertheless, it holds more mysteries than many periods of antiquity or the Middle Ages of which we have only sparse relics. One of the biggest mysteries is the question of the causes of the collapse of civilization in the first half of the century. In Germany as well as in Russia, regimes came to power invoking the implementation of utopias that had been dreamt up during the 'long' 19th century yet which had been considered unrealizable. Now, it turned out, even the most radical utopian blueprint could be put into place. This development, intertwined with an extraordinarily deep crisis of European democracy, did not happen overnight. It had been looming for a long time. There had even been several prescient voices heralding the upcoming crisis--trailing away without being noticed. Volume 19, Issue 1 of FORUM recognizes some of these unheard prophets and scrutinizes their writings.

Recognition and Ethics in World Literature is a critical comparative study of contemporary world literature, focusing on the importance of the ethical turn (or return) in literary theory. The book examines the ethical engagement of novels by Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Caryl Phillips, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and J. M. Coetzee, exploring the overlap and divergence between Levinasian/Derridean and Aristotelian ethics. Recognitions and emotional responses are integral to the unfolding of ethical concerns, and the ethics they explore are often marked by the complexity and impurity characteristic of the tragic. Recognition is particularly suitable for the concerns of world literature authors in its interconnection of the universal and the particular--a binary that has been crucial in postcolonialism and remains important for the wider field of world literature. This study builds its analysis around three broad themes: religion, the memory of violence, and the human.

This book is a comprehensive account of the Belzec death camp in Poland, which was the first death camp to use static gas chambers as part of the Aktion Reinhardt mass murder program. It covers the construction and the development of the mechanisms of mass murder. The story is painstakingly told from all sides--the Jewish inmates, the perpetrators, and the Polish inhabitants of the village of Belzec, who lived near the factory of death. A major part of this work is the Jewish Roll of Remembrance, which covers the few survivors and the lives of some of the Jews among the many hundreds of thousands who perished in Belzec. The book is richly illustrated with historical and modern photographs, some of which are previously unpublished, as well as documents and drawings.

Solar power has taken a journey from what was once considered the lunatic fringe to mainstream society and industry. Looking specifically at the Solex project in Carnarvon, Western Australia, which pioneered the harvest of solar energy, this book offers an introduction to the development of renewable energy and the rise of dispersed, embedded solar energy systems in Australia in the early 2000s. Fullarton shows how a practical demonstration of innovative existing technology can have an incredible impact on a national scale. The ideas behind the Solex project were adopted by the broader community and were eventually taken up enthusiastically by the general population of Australia. Analyzing government and utility policies throughout the 2000s, the book traces how ambivalence was followed by wholehearted incentives to the roll-out of alternative energy and then by active opposition to alternative energy in favor of traditional fossil fuel as government philosophies changed.

"Like David, I am battling against a Goliath that has almost immeasurable means and powerful allies. I don't think I can win, I just want to be heard. No dictatorship lasts forever, and if my contribution can sooner or later bring about its downfall, then I will have achieved what I set out to do." The man waging this unequal war is Viktor Khrapunov. He used to be mayor of Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, and the country's Energy Minister before he was forced into exile. From Switzerland, where he now lives with his family, he brings charges against the rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev, which will soon reach its twenty-fifth year. Nazarbayev, initially welcomed as a young, dynamic president, has become a reckless and unpredictable dictator over the years. From the abusive privatization of the country's mineral resources and thriving corruption to personal intrigues and the stone-cold elimination of political opponents--Khrapunov's account of the criminal wheeling and dealing of this self-styled 'ruler of the nation' tells it how it is. Based on Khrapunov's insider knowledge from the hallways of global power, his story is also a revelation of Western apathy towards a brutal dictatorial regime. This gripping autobiographical narrative helps the reader understand how Kazakhstan has developed politically from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the modern day, and how it can blossom into a democratic state.

Izabela Kazejak examines the process of re-establishing Jewish communities in two cities: Wroclaw, which passed from Germany to Poland in 1945, and L'viv, which passed from Poland to Soviet Ukraine. She compares the similarities and differences of the two regimesʼ policies, and why the effort to create self-identified Jewish yet loyal Communist communities did not succeed. The first chapter looks into the pre-war history and wartime destruction of Jewish communities in Breslau, Germany, and Lwów, Poland. Subsequent chapters trace the efforts of the post-war regimes, supported by those Jews who had survived the Holocaust and chose to remain in Eastern Europe, to reconstitute Jewish life up to 1968 in the case of Wroclaw and the 1970s in the case of L'viv. The author explores and analyzes several context in relation to this process: the official policies towards Jews of the government of the Polish People's Republic and the government of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; the aims and effects of these official policies; the implementation of these central policies at the local level; the national contexts of Poland and Soviet Ukraine; popular and official antisemitism and its effect on the post-war Jewish communities; and finally, the effects of the economic and social modernization carried out by the Communist regimes on the development of the Jewish communities.

This is the third installment in a series of JSPPS discussions on the conceptualization of the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during World War II. The sections in this series are not classical assemblies of peer-reviewed research papers on a particular theme, but constitute a round-table-like debate consisting of interactive interventions by senior and junior scholars from the disciplines of comparative fascism and Ukrainian nationalism. The discussion originated from two intriguing conceptual articles on interpretative and classificatory issues in the comparative study of European and, in particular, East European permutations of interwar and wartime right-wing radicalism, as well as on the utility of an application of new overarching taxa to them.

Critical discussions on Jhumpa Lahiri's works are rampant, but they are confined to her short stories and fictional writings. This book offers a fresh perspective by showing how she gradually shifts her identity from a fiction writer to a non-fiction writer. And, more importantly, her adherence to the 'Italian phase' in academia has not previously been the subject of such a thorough critical investigation. There is a sudden change in her writing and her choice of language; she prefers Italy and the Italian language to English and Bengali. Such spatial as well as linguistic dislocation leads her towards a new space in which she anticipates her freedom of choice, confronts difficulties, and often gets confused, too: to be in Italy or not to be. What this book seeks to touch upon is how Lahiri's fictional as well as nonfictional writings bring out her and her fictional characters' translational and transnational existence reinforcing her literary motto 'I translate, therefore I am'. It is of special interest to students as well as scholars of Diaspora and Migration studies.

There are certain parallels between the operations Vladimir Putin initiated in the wake of the Ukraine crisis of 2014 and the approach Stalin took in the region during the Second World War.Stalin's ruthless use of scorched earth tactics, the deliberate provocation of reprisals of the occupiers against the civilian population, the destruction of their own villages, the chaotic collection of taxes in kind from the population, accompanied by everyday looting, benders, fornication and violence, fratricidal internal conflicts, the use of doping, the operational use of bacteriological weapons, and even cannibalism--all this was not a random price for the massive bloodshed and no spontaneous response of the population to the brutality of the German occupation in the 1940s. These were, as Alexander Gogun shows in his historiographical investigation, planned or consciously accepted phenomena and peculiarities of Stalin's warfare tactics.A book that makes an important contribution to the historical context of the current crisis in Ukraine.Es finden sich Parallelen zwischen den von Wladimir Putin im Zuge der Ukraine-Krise 2014 initiierten Operationen in der Ukraine und dem dortigen Vorgehen Stalins während des zweiten Weltkriegs. Stalins rücksichtslose Anwendung der Taktik der verbrannten Erde, das absichtliche Provozieren von Repressalien der Besatzer gegen die Zivilisten, die Vernichtung eigener Dörfer, die chaotische Eintreibung von Naturalsteuern von der Bevölkerung, begleitet von alltäglichen Plünderungen, Besäufnissen, Unzucht und Gewalt, brudermörderische innere Konflikte, die Benutzung von Doping, der operative Einsatz bakteriologischer Waffen und sogar Kannibalismus - all das war in den 1940er Jahren kein zufälliger Preis für das massenhafte Blutvergießen und auch keine spontane Antwort des Volkes auf die Brutalität der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft. Dies waren, wie Alexander Gogun in seiner vorliegenden historiographischen Untersuchung aufzeigt, geplante oder bewusst in Kauf genommene Erscheinungen und Besonderheiten der Kriegsführung Stalins.Ein Buch, das einen wichtigen Beitrag zur historischen Einordnung der aktuellen Ukraine-Krise leistet.

This engaging and insightful book is the first historical study in English portraying the lives and fates of Czech women. The seven life stories, ranging from the late 19th century to the present day, expose the often cruel political history of Bohemia (19th century), the Czech lands in Czechoslovakia (20th century), and the Czech Republic (20th-21st century) through the eyes of prominent women whose acts and deeds on behalf of their fellow citizens remain unforgotten in the Czech collective mind. The three chapters and four oral history interviews offer a captivating insight into how the situation of Czech women in society has changed during a most eventful period of history. This book was preceded by a volume on Slovak women. The two volumes are separate entities in their own right, but together provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of women's lives in the Czech lands and Slovakia, stressing the distinct political circumstances Czech and Slovak women have faced in recent history.

""The author has written a clear but scholarly account of the main political developments of the 'long twentieth century, ' from 1894 to 2008. It is especially good in treating Russia's nationalities issues and the period from Gorbachev's assumption of power in 1985 until the end of the Putin presidency in 2008.""-Walter G. Moss, ""The Russian Review"", on David R. Marples, ""Russia in the 20th Century: the Illusion of Stability"" (2011)

The 1967 'Summer of Love' brought all sorts of unusual people and events to London but perhaps nothing so extraordinary as the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation. The congress, organized by the American 'anti-psychiatrist' Joe Berke, with help from Leon Redler, R.D. Laing, David Cooper, and a host of students, ex-students, psychiatric 'patients', and secretaries, took place at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm Road over two weeks during July, and was designed to 'demystify human violence in all its forms, the social systems from which it emanates, and to explore new forms of action.' But that bald summary of the purpose of the congress, accurate as it is, hardly does justice to its immediate achievements or to its long-term significance. Mingling with the many then famous speakers: Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Marcuse, Paul Goodman, Stokely Carmichael, Gregory Bateson, C.L.R. James, Julian Beck, Emmett Grogan, Thich Nhat Hanh, Paul Sweezy, John Gerassi, and Lucien Goldmann, were many younger people who arrived with their own ideas and who themselves went onto distinguished and influential careers in the arts, politics and academia. One was the American artist Carolee Schneemann, who devised a happening which was performed on the last day of the congress. Another was the British psychoanalyst and feminist Juliet Mitchell. A third was the American feminist, Angela Davis. This book, which is in part a biography of Joe Berke, traces the Congress from its origins in the United States to its major outgrowth The Anti-University of London, and concludes with some brief reflections on the congress's relevance to today's 'revolutionary' identity-based politics.

Charlotta Palmstierna Einarsson takes a closer look at the often peculiar, sometimes incongruous physical movements and gestures that characters perform in Samuel Beckett's drama, viz. mis-movements. Sensitivity to the embodied aspects of life is topical in Beckett's drama, but such mis-movements underwrite the intrinsic connections between sense and sense-making to safeguard an ethics of interpretation founded on embodied cognition. Tracing Beckett's aesthetics of gesture back to its phenomenological and embodied roots, Einarsson suggests that the use of mis-movements in Beckett's drama is a methodological solution to the predicament of expression that exposes the injustices done by language to audiences as embodied knowers. More than interpretative dilemmas, mis-movements offer conduits for spectators to re-connect with embodied experience. Thus, they are the poetic means through which an alternative ethics of interpretation begins to emerge.

Though informed by case studies conducted in Ukraine, this book transcends its country-specific scope. It explains why informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary but a constant in most political systems. The book discusses self-protective mechanisms, responses to incomplete or unfocused policy making, and strategies employed by individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. The book argues that when state or company expectations exceed normative behavior, informal behavior continues to thrive. New tactics help cope with the reality of governance. Informality also challenges the values imposed by power through attitudes and behaviors that take place "beyond" or "in spite of" the state.

The image of the medieval and Renaissance demon attracts the interest of historians, philosophers, anthropologists, and many other scholars because of its huge impact on significant social and political phenomena and because of its relation to many philosophical and intellectual movements. Nevertheless, such researches are focused predominantly on the Western evil spirit. Its Byzantine 'colleague', on the other hand, has been somehow neglected, even though Byzantinology is at least a century-old field of research. This book attempts to shed light on a subject which has not been previously in the focus of such exhaustive research. The image of the demon will be presented in a very different and much more obscure epoque, for which the main sources are numerous, but not so well-known. The so-called Byzantine 'Dark centuries' are marked by political and social instability and theological crises. Nevertheless, during these troubled centuries one literary genre flourished. The Lives of the Saints, unlike the works of the 10th century humanists and encyclopedists, do not shine with the archaic light of the Hermogenean style or with the well-built reasoning of Procopius; they are vivid reflections of the real life, of the beliefs and the superstitions of ordinary people. The Evil and the demons are constantly present in this world and they deserve their own history and 'archaeology.'

This timely book provides a detailed analysis of Russia's national interests in the Arctic region. It analyzes Russia's domestic discourse on the Far North's role among national priorities as well as Moscow's bi- and multilateral relations with major regional players, including energy, environmental, socio-cultural, and military policies in the Arctic. In contrast to the internationally widespread stereotype of Russia as a revisionist power in the Far North, this book argues that Moscow tries to pursue a double-sided strategy in the region. On the one hand, Russia aims at defending legitimate economic interests in the region. On the other hand, Moscow is open to co-operation with foreign partners that are willing to partake in exploiting the Arctic natural resources. The general conclusion is that in the foreseeable future Moscow's strategy in the region will be predictable and pragmatic rather than aggressive or spontaneous. The authors argue that in order to consolidate the soft power pattern of Russia's behavior a proper international environment in the Arctic should be created by common efforts. Other regional players should demonstrate their responsibility and willingness to solve existing and potential problems on the basis of international law.

Issue 2023:1 of In Statu Nascendi comprises, amongst others, the following articles: - Ethics of AI and Robotics from a non Anthopomorphical and Zoomorphical Perspective- The Self and Mental Health Studies: A Postmodern Introduction- Gödel's non-completeness theorems as hermeneutic questioning in Mathematics- Integrating Ontology in statu nascendi in the Main Currents of International Relations Theory Content analysis through text mining: an empirical approach of understanding international political integration theories in practice

After their Shreds of War: Fates from the Donbas Frontline 2015-2019, Eperjesi and Kachura uncover in this second volume effects of the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. Oleksandr managed to visit the peninsula not long after its occupation by Russian troops. While doing interviews with local people, he was threatened by the authorities yet managed to escape with his exclusive stories of teachers and students, pensioners, children and their parents, market vendors and businessmen, homeless people, health care employees and their patients, the so called "cotton wool people," and Ukrainian patriots. Many of them told him about how hopeful they were in early 2014, and how disappointed they have become as their expectations were not met by the "Russian world." This concerns the banking system of Crimea, propaganda and censorship of the Russian state, and failed tourist seasons. People still living or somehow related to Crimea tell us about the dramatic days of the illegal annexation. They explain what led to the tragedy and what mistakes were made by the Ukrainian authorities. Ordinary people, soldiers, journalists, heroes and traitors, emigrants, Crimean Tatars, Russian soldiers, Cossacks and the members of the so called "Crimean Self-Defense" disclose how they contributed to the historic events on the peninsula. Finally, the famous Crimean film director Oleh Sentsov shares with us how he managed to survive his illegal imprisonment by Russia and what impact it has had on his life.