Basic Books signs Finkel’s trade début To Kill Ukraine

Basic Books has signed To Kill Ukraine by Eugene Finkel, who places the current war amid a long history of sustained Russian and Soviet political violence.

Joe Zigmond, editorial director, acquired world English language rights from Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson. Basic Books will also publish in the US. Hardman has sold Dutch rights to Ambo Anthos. The book is set to be published in summer 2024.

The synopsis states: “To Kill Ukraine is the deeper history of Russian violence against civilians in Ukraine, told with the astonishing power derived from Finkel’s personal connection to this living history, and the authority of two decades of research. For centuries, dominating Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russia’s policy, and at numerous times achieving this goal took the form of mass violence against civilians, both ethnic Ukrainians and minorities such as Tatars, Jews and Poles.”

Finkel is the Kenneth H Keller Associate Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. He was born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: mass violence, state collapse and rapid change. Finkel is the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press) and, together with Scott Gehlbach, of Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press). His third book, Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics and Security in Putin’s Russia, co-authored with Janetta Azarieva and Yitzhak Brudny, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. This is his first trade book.

Zigmond said: “This book is much bigger than a current affairs take on the Ukraine war. Eugene Finkel takes readers back across the catalogue of physical and cultural eradication that has been a part of the Kremlin playbook for over a century. It is not a few bad apples, it is foreign policy. Taking the long view at Russia’s genocidal violence, Eugene shows how this form of atrocity has shaped the region over time and explores what happens next. It will be the war’s most ambitious draft of history to date, and we are delighted to be publishing it.”

Finkel added: “Until several months ago mass murder of civilians in Ukraine in 2022 seemed unthinkable and this is not a book I ever imagined myself writing. But after Russia invaded Ukraine, the past and the present of mass violence is a story I feel an obligation to tell. Since I started reading non-fiction it has been my dream to publish with Basic Books and I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with the press on this important topic.”