Lionel Gelber Prize Announces 25th Anniversary Winner:

Serhii Plokhy to Deliver Free Public Lecture April 21st

TORONTO AND WASHINGTON, March 30, 2015 /CNW/ - Patricia Rubin, Chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize Board and niece of the late Lionel Gelber, today announced that the winner of the 25th annual Lionel Gelber Prize is Serhii Plokhy for The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union published by Basic Books.

"Serhii Plokhy tells a compelling, revelatory story about the final months of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new regional order centred on Russia. Using newly available sources, Plokhy illuminates the role of the American White House in the defence of the Russian one, and the critical part played by Ukraine in defining the outcome. The Last Empire tells us a great deal about the dynamics at play in Russia and Ukraine today. A wonderful read," said Jury Chair William Thorsell.

Serhii Plokhy will accept his award and give a free public lecture at the Campbell Conference Facility, at the Munk School of Global Affairs, at the University of Toronto, on Tuesday, April 21, 2015.

The jury is composed of Jury Chair William Thorsell (Canada), Anne Applebaum (Warsaw, Poland), Gary Bass (Princeton, USA), Matias Spektor (Brazil), and John Stackhouse (Toronto, Canada).

About the Winner: Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is a leading authority on the region and author of several books including, The Origins of the Slavic Nations and Yalta: The Price of Peace, which was a finalist for the 2011 Lionel Gelber Prize.  

About the Prize: A literary award for the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues, the Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. The award is presented annually by The Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs, at the University of Toronto. A cash prize of $15,000 is awarded to the winner. Two thousand and fifteen marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Prize.

SOURCE The Lionel Gelber Prize

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