3: 4. Khrushchev, Putin's Perceptions, and the Soviet Golden Age in Ukraine The Soviet period saw Ukraine rise to crucial importance; leaders like Khrushchev and Brezhnev spent large parts of their careers in the Ukrainian Communist Party apparatus. In 1954,

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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4. Khrushchev, Putin's Perceptions, and the Soviet Golden Age in Ukraine The Soviet period saw Ukraine rise to crucial importance; leaders like Khrushchev and Brezhnev spent large parts of their careers in the Ukrainian Communist Party apparatus. In 1954, Khrushchev transferred Crimea from the Russian Federation to Ukraine for practical reasons, as Kyiv was better positioned to manage it than Moscow. During the 1960s, Ukraine became a critical industrial manufacturing center, producing coal, military ballistic missiles, and space-related equipment, reinforcing its centrality to the Soviet state. Vladimir Putin, born in 1953, formed his understanding of Ukraine during this relatively calm period. For his generation, it was implicit and taken for granted that Ukraine was merely an extension of Russia—a source of industry, grain, and the beloved vacation spot of Crimea, the "Soviet Florida." Russians became emotionally attached to Ukraine as "ours," making the idea of Ukrainian independence not even a question for debate in the Russian mindset.
1855 CRIMEA

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchew with Professor Eugene Finkel.
0:07.4	His book is Intent to Destroy, Russia's 200-year quest to dominate Ukraine.
0:12.3	This book will very much help those making decisions about the Ukraine war now.
0:17.5	It would have helped if Bill Clinton had read this book in 1994 before he obliged Ukraine to give away its nuclear weapons, before they were certain that Russia wasn't a revengeous power, as we know it to be.
0:31.4	At the same time, I don't mean to delve into irony too much, but oft times, professor, I come up against the Americans in the telling.
0:38.6	First time, John Quincy Adams is the ambassador to the court of Catherine Negrae.
0:44.4	Doesn't understand it, but spend some time there, and he's a very smart man.
0:47.8	The second time is when Herbert Hoover's need to feed people in Europe also feeds the Soviets.
0:55.5	Otherwise, they would have starved out of existence during the period between 17 and 21.
1:02.2	The third time is important to me.
1:03.8	Walter Durante lying about the Holodomor.
1:08.5	So Americans have been involved in several centuries of the tragedy of Ukraine.
1:13.3	I want to race to Khrushchev. He's not Ukrainian, but he's from the Kursk region. So is Brezhnev.
1:20.7	Does that influence his decision-making about Ukraine?
1:24.1	Well, so you're right. Prushev was born in what is now Russia just across the border from Ukraine, but he
1:32.3	actually grew up in Ukraine.
1:33.9	And until he became, or before he became, the Secretary General, most of his career was in
1:40.7	Ukraine.
1:41.1	He was the party boss in Ukraine in 1930s, then after World War II. So he's
1:48.5	definitely part of the Ukrainian Communist Party apparatus and their networks. And once he become
1:57.6	the Secretary General of the Communist Party and the leader of the Soviet Union,
2:03.0	that shows you how important Ukraine was for Moscow, that someone who spent most of his career
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