Free The Last Empire by Serhii Plokhy Page A

book, as did Blair Ruble of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars inWashington, Vlad Zubok of the London School of Economics, and Olga Pavlenko of the Russian University for the Humanities. Their advice helped me greatly in crystallizing my argument, cutting less important parts of the manuscript, and avoiding mistakes. As always, my friend and longtime editor Myroslav Yurkevich did a wonderful job of “Englishing” my prose.
    I am grateful to the Department of History for granting me a sabbatical in the fall of 2011 to work on the book and to the Ukrainian Research Institute and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies for providing financial support. Special thanks go to my colleague Tim Colton, with whom I co-taught the seminar “Imperial Legacies and International Politics” in the 2012–2013 academic year, and to the Davis Center fellows and graduate students who took that course. I learned a lot from Tim and from the seminar participants about Soviet and post-Soviet politics and the ways in which they have been interpreted in the last few decades.
    Princeton University archivist Daniel J. Linke helped me to secure permission to use Secretary Baker’s papers at the Mudd Manuscript Library. Alexei Litvin was very helpful with getting access to the archive of the Gorbachev Foundation. Mikhail Prezumenshchikov, Peter Ruggenthaler, Yurii Shapoval, and Volodymyr Viatrovych advised me on the former Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian archives. I am grateful to Evgenia Panova at the International Department of the ITAR-TASS Photo Agency and to Oscar Espaillat at Corbis Images for help in selecting the illustrations for this book.
    My literary agent, Jill Kneerim, not only helped me find an excellent publisher for the manuscript but also helped make my argument as clear as possible not only to specialists in the field but also to a broader readership. One could not wish for a more supportive and enthusiastic publisher and editor than Lara Heimert, who took an immediate interest in the manuscript and, together with her highly motivated, friendly, and energetic team, turned it into a book. At Basic Books I am especially grateful to Roger Labrie, whose editing made my prose more lucid, and to Katy O’Donnell, who helped guide the book through the editorial process. Like all my previous books, this one could not have been written without the interest, support, and advice of my wife, Olena.