The Making of Modern Ukraine
- Free
- No certificate
- Beginner
- 24 hours
The Making of Modern Ukraine is Timothy Snyder's Yale lecture course, taught in autumn 2022 and released publicly within days of each lecture; on Coursera it is packaged as a single module that Coursera estimates at about 24 hours. Starting from the observation that Ukraine must already have existed as a society for Ukrainians to resist invasion in February 2022, the lectures ask what it means for a nation to exist and answer historically: ancient and medieval Kyiv, early modern Lithuania and Poland, the Russian and Austrian empires, Jewish and Polish urban life, Romanticism and modern nationalism, the Bolshevik revolution and its Ukrainian counterparts, Soviet modernisation and terror, Nazi occupation and the Holocaust, and the path to the present war. Coursera labels the course beginner level and self-paced.
Everything is free: the course page states that no certificates, credentials or reports are awarded, and Yale Online lists the fee as free with open access. The same lectures are on YouTube.
What you’ll learn
- Explain what it means for a nation such as Ukraine to exist
- Trace Ukraine's history from the Kyiv state through early modern Lithuania and Poland
- Describe the Russian and Austrian imperial periods and Ukraine's Jewish and Polish urban societies
- Follow the Bolshevik revolution, Soviet modernisation and terror, and Nazi occupation
- Relate the country's past to the war that began in 2022
Who it’s for
Anyone who wants the historical background to the war in Ukraine from a specialist, with no prior knowledge required.
Syllabus
One section as listed on coursera.org.
- The Making of Modern Ukraine 23 h 43 min
Instructor
- Timothy Snyder Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University, History, Yale University
Course details
- Skills covered
- World History
- Political Sciences
- European History
- Cultural Diversity
- Culture
- Ancient History
- Includes
- 1 module
- Prerequisites
- No prior experience required
- Subtitles
- 1 language
On coursera.org
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 22 learners; 3,285 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Yale Online (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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