Book Talk: Beyond the Myths: Rethinking the Euromaidan Uprising and Its Aftermath. A conversation with historian William Risch
Wednesday, 28 October 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | GD 203, Gräfin-Dönhoff-Buildin | ‘Ukraine’s Euromaidan. From Revolutionary Euphoria to the Madness of War’ (2026, Bloomsbury) provides a critical survey of Ukraine's 2013-14 Euromaidan Revolution – the 'Revolution of Dignity'. Ukraine's Euromaidan explores both sides of a revolution that shaped not just Ukraine, but the world, as told by the participants themselves, including the author.
Drawing on interviews and thousands of archived videos, articles, personal memoirs, and social media postsfrom both sides of the barricades, Risch shows how events in Kyiv and Ukraine's regions were intimately entangled. Protest and counter-protest participation shifted and evolved. Escalating revolutionary violence weakened the state and pitted citizens against one another. Risch also reflects on the 'Russian Spring' that swept through Ukraine's south and east, revealing the counter-protesters' agency and revolutionary aspirations, as well as Russia's role in radicalizing them.
William Jay Risch is a professor of Russian and Eastern European history at Georgia College & State University in the United States. In a conversation with Jan C. Behrends, professor of history at Viadrina, moderated by Susann Worschech (KIU), he will present his newly published book and guide us through the complexities of modern Ukrainian revolutions and their ambivalences.
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