Earlier this year, Ten Speed announced the nonfiction graphic novel A Brief History of a Long War: Ukraine’s Fight Against Russian Domination, which covers present-day Ukraine’s centuries-long fight against present-day Russia beginning in the Middle Ages. Today, The Beat can reveal the book’s haunting U.S. edition cover art by Ukrainian artists Yulia Vus and Ivan Kypibida, who also do the interior art.
A Brief History of a Long War is written by Ukrainian scholar, activist, and award-winning journalist Mariam Naiem. In addition to examining the 2014 Russia-Ukraine war that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022—which is merely the most recent demonstration of Russia’s oppression of Ukraine—Naiem also examines how the Ukrainian people have been subjected to multiple genocides by the Russian and Soviet government across multiple generations.
Historical events covered in the book include the Holomodor famine in the 1930s and the Ukrainian “linguicide” of the 1860s, when their native language was wiped out after Russia banned it, erased it from historical texts, and persecuted anyone who spoke it.
Per the book’s official synopsis from Ten Speed, “Alongside gripping accounts of the historical foundation of the modern Ukrainian state as we know it today, Naiem seamlessly incorporates current narratives about the harrowing realities of war and the lengths citizens must go to survive.” A Brief History is billed as “an ode to the moments of resistance and resilience from the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia’s oppressive, colonial history.”
See the U.S. cover art below.


A Brief History of a Long War will be available everywhere books are sold in the U.S. on January 27, 2026. Pre-orders are available now.