#288 Ukraine and Russia: The History Behind the War w/ Serhy Yekelchyk
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, he and many others assumed that Russia's "special operation" would end in a quick victory. Eighteen months later, an independent Ukraine stands strong, while Russia's position has grown so weak that Putin has begun working to develop closer ties with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Why has Ukraine been so resilient, and why has Putin remained committed to a war that has done so much damage to Russia? The answer has everything to do with the ways those on both sides of the conflict understand history.
In this episode, historian Serhy Yekelchyk joins Ben to discuss the history of Russia and Ukraine, and how understanding the war on the battlefield requires understanding the conflicting historical narratives embraced by those on both sides.
Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk is Professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria. A native of Kiev, Serhy has published extensively on Ukranian history, including The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2020) and Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (Oxford University Press, 2007).
We'd like to give a special thanks to the Strickland family for establishing the Strickland Distinguished Lecture Series at Middle Tennessee State University, which brought Dr. Yekelchyk to MTSU's campus, and to Emily Baran and Lynn Nelson for their help in arranging this recording.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:09.0 | Today we are at Middle Tennessee State University, my host university. |
| 0:14.6 | And this week at MTSU, we have one of the great delights of this university, which is the Strickland Scholar is visiting us. |
| 0:22.6 | And this, if you listen to the podcast for a while, you know this has brought us some |
| 0:26.8 | incredible guests in the past. Today's guest is Sir He Yeklchek, who is a professor of history |
| 0:32.1 | and Slavic studies at the University of Victoria and Canada. He is an expert on the history of Ukraine. And it is a delight to have you here. Welcome to the podcast, Siri. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much, Ben, for the invitation. Yeah, absolutely. And this is fun because last night we got a chance to have dinner in Nashville and really just sit down and talk. And so we got a chance to talk about life and cars breaking down and cars not breaking down and the like. So now we're to the Syria stuff. You've come here to visit campus to give a talk about what's going on in Ukraine. And just up front, you are Ukrainian. You're from Kiev. Yes? I am. Yeah. I was born there, but I was born there at a very different time when it was part |
| 1:14.3 | of the Soviet Union and there was not as much Ukrainian language spoken especially in the |
| 1:20.6 | cities. |
| 1:21.6 | And it's a very different Ukraine now. |
| 1:23.6 | Yes, and that's one of the things I want to get into as well, you know, the before and after, |
| 1:28.6 | and you've seen both of them. |
| 1:29.9 | So just to start off, what's the status of the situation with Russia and Ukraine? |
| 1:34.9 | Where are things going and what have been the new developments in the last few months? |
| 1:39.6 | It has become a situation in which you need to consider not just the actual fighting the front lines, but also attacks on the cities, attempts to manipulate the grain supply of the world, and in fact diplomatic and information efforts aimed at other countries. |
| 2:01.6 | So it really is a hybrid war involving other means of fighting truth and democracy on |
| 2:07.6 | the side and for the empire and the privileged narrative on the other side. |
| 2:13.6 | It's no longer a traditional conflict, but it is still the conflict which will be decided |
| 2:21.3 | by the international community ultimately. |
| 2:24.3 | Yes, and what I think is interesting here is we're already getting into it. |
| 2:28.3 | You've identified one side as imperial, as the empire. |
| 2:32.3 | So I want to talk about the international community, but up front, when |
| 2:35.8 | you say that word, how do you mean it when you use the word empire to refer to Russia? What does that |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Benjamin Sawyer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Benjamin Sawyer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.