A person holds up a photo showing the city of Prypiat's main square and the 'Energetik' cultural center before the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, against the same site, now abandoned and overgrown with trees, 2015. (Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Serhii Plokhy is the professor of history at Harvard University and the director of the university’s Ukrainian Research Institute. He is the author of numerous books, most recently, Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation and <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/serhii-plokhy/chernobyl/9781541617094/">Chernobyl: The History of the Nuclear Catastrophe</a>.

Serhii Plokhy

Serhii Plokhy is the professor of history at Harvard University and the director of the university’s Ukrainian Research Institute. He is the author of numerous books, most recently, Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation and Chernobyl: The History of the Nuclear Catastrophe.

Serhii Plokhy Archives | HISTORY

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HISTORY

The Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted for decades and resulted in anti-communist suspicions and international incidents that led two superpowers to the brink of nuclear disaster.

Cold War

Explore the wars, battles, leaders, civilizations, regimes, prominent figures and major events from the continent that encompasses 2 percent of the Earth’s surface. From Stonehenge to the Great Awakening to the French Revolution to the rise and fall of Communism in Russia, see how Europe’s often tumultuous history unfolded.

European History

During the 1980s, conservative politics and Reaganomics held sway as the Berlin Wall crumbled, new computer technologies emerged, AIDS ravaged the United States, especially the gay male community, and blockbuster movies and MTV reshaped pop culture.

Serhii Plokhy

Stories

Lenin vs Stalin: Their Showdown Over the Birth of the USSR

The Chernobyl Cover‑Up: How Officials Botched Evacuating an Irradiated City