Nearly six years after the fall of the regime of Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 is increasingly becoming a subject of historical analysis, albeit one still fraught with political controversy.

This is clear in Mychailo Wynnyckyi’s book, Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War: A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity, published last year. Wynnyckyj, Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, was a participant in the protests held on Kyiv’s main square, the Maidan. Wynnyckyj prefers the term “Maidan” to “Euromaidan,” as the latter suggests that the protest movement was merely about having Ukraine sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, when from December 2013 onward this was a revolution aimed at overthrowing Yanukovych.

Wynnyckyj openly admits that his account may be one-sided, and to be fair to the author, it is an academic memoir. Throughout the book, he reminds readers that he supported the protests at the Kyiv Maidan. Not only did Wynnyckyj take part in protests there, he worked with other Maidan activists trying to spread the message of the Maidan to other regions of Ukraine (devising with them a banner in Russian, “Understand us. We’re fed up!” [Poimite nas. Zadolbalo!], displayed across one of the Maidan’s main barricades and photographs of which spread worldwide). Later, after Russia began its war with Ukraine, he and other patriotic Ukrainians helped donate money and supplies for Ukraine’s military forces, including its volunteer battalions. He served as an advisor in Ukraine’s Ministry of Education, implementing key reforms which he identified with the spirit of the Maidan.

Wynnyckyj’s memoir differs significantly from others on the Maidan and its aftermath as he offers valuable first-hand observations of events in Kyiv. During the Maidan protests, his Facebook postings (“Thoughts from Kyiv”) became mandatory reading for understanding events in Ukraine’s capital. The first part of the book is a chronology of events covering the Maidan protests, the overthrow of the Yanukovych regime, and then Russian military intervention, first in Crimea, then in the Donbas region. Much of this chronicle comes from Wynnyckyj’s Facebook blog, as well as his other personal observations and observations of friends of his.

He makes use of general press articles from the time, including many in English from journalists and foreign observers. Wynnyckyj’s chronology is unmatched in its detailed analysis of the implosion of the Party of Regions and the Yanukovych regime itself. The resignation of Mykola Azarov as Prime Minister at the end of January 2014 brought a split among seven different factions within the Party of Regions. Some supported closer ties with the European Union and a peaceful resolution of the country’s political crisis, while others insisted on closer ties with Russia and a violent suppression of the Kyiv Maidan.