David R. Marples is Distinguished Professor, Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta and teaches Russian and East European history. He holds a PhD in Economic and Social History from the University of Sheffield, UK. Dr. Marples is author of seventeen single-authored books and five edited books on topics ranging from 20th Century Russia, Stalinism, contemporary Belarus, contemporary Ukraine, the Chernobyl disaster. and 20th century Russia. His recent books include Stalin (2022), The War in Ukraine’s Donbas (2022), Understanding Ukraine and Belarus (2020), Ukraine in Conflict (2017), ‘Our Glorious Past: Lukashenka’s Belarus and the Great Patriotic War (Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2014), and Heroes and Villains: Creating National History in Contemporary Ukraine (2008). His chief areas of interest are Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia).