Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian historian at Harvard University, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, and an author of many books on history of Eastern Europe, including his latest book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/serhii-plokhy-transcript (https://lexfridman.com/serhii-plokhy-transcript)

EPISODE LINKS:

Serhii’s X: https://x.com/splokhy (https://x.com/splokhy)

Serhii’s Website: https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/serhii-plokhii (https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/serhii-plokhii)

Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute: https://huri.harvard.edu/ (https://huri.harvard.edu/)

Serhii’s Books: https://amzn.to/3OS2EqK (https://amzn.to/3OS2EqK)

2006 – The Origins of the Slavic Nations

2010 – Yalta: The Price of Peace

2012 – The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires

2014 – The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union

2015 – The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

2016 – The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story

2017 – Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation

2018 – Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy

2021 – Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

2021 – The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present

2022 – Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disaster

2023 – The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

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OUTLINE:

Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) – Introduction

(09:10) – Collapse of the Soviet Union

(25:19) – Origins of Russia and Ukraine

(38:22) – Ukrainian nationalism

(46:04) – Stepan Bandera

(1:15:05) – KGB

(1:30:03) – War in Ukraine

(2:06:19) – NATO and Russia

(2:17:22) – Peace talks

(2:31:09) – Ukrainian Army head Valerii Zaluzhnyi

(2:37:46) – Power and War

(2:48:37) – Holodomor

(2:55:09) – Chernobyl

(3:05:43) – Nuclear power

(3:15:20) – Future of the world