This book examines the diary of a "common man," Kostiantyn Sambursky, that stands out among the very few such known works. It provides a detailed account of daily events for almost 10 years in one village: Huzhivka in Chernihiv province.The diary describes the comings and goings of rival armies, confiscations, requisitions, the activities of the local officials, the role of the church in local affairs, personal rivalries, and how land re-allocation occurred in this settlement of approximately 3,000 people. The diary provides invaluable insight into the human element of rural revolutionary Ukraine.

Dr. Stephen Velychenko is Senior Research Fellow at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is author of Life and Death in Revolutionary Ukraine (McGill-Queens UP 2022), Propaganda in Revolutionary Ukraine (Toronto UP 2019), Painting Imperialism and Nationalism Red (Toronto UP 2016), State-Building in Revolutionary Ukraine (Toronto UP 2010), Shaping Identity in Eastern Europe and Russia (St. Martin's Press 1993), and National History as Cultural Process (CIUS 1992), editor of Ukraine, the EU and Russia (Palgrave 2007), as well as co-editor of Ireland and Ukraine (ibidem-Verlag 2022) and Rossia et Britannia: Skhid/Zakhid (No. 4, 2001).