title: Soviet Collapse and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
abstract: The roots of the Ukraine crisis since February–March 2014 more directly stem from the 1954 decision of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to hand over Crimea to Ukraine. Khrushchev's decision was based on the argument that both Ukraine and Crimea were agricultural areas. But more important, Khrushchev, who hoped to build upon Lenin's earlier rapprochement with Ukrainian nationalists, had ostensibly hoped to make amends for the brutal treatment of the Ukrainians by Stalin during the Soviet collecti
journal: Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks