Michael F. Hamm, Professor of History at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, is the editor and part-author of two earlier books on the Russian and Soviet city and has written articles on the history of Kiev, Kharkiv, and Riga. He has traveled to Kiev on five occasions. The recipient of Fulbright-Hays and International Research and Exchanges Board grants, he has spent more than thirteen months working in the archives and libraries of the former Soviet Union.