LAST OF SOVEREIGN UKRAINE: 2/8: Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine Hardcover – November 19, 2024 by Eugene Finkel (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
1859 ODESSA
https://www.amazon.com/Intent-Destroy-Russias-Two-Hundred-Year-Dominate/dp/1541604679
Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. And yet, to Ukrainians, this attack was painfully familiar, the latest episode in a centuries-long Russian campaign to divide and oppress Ukraine.
In Intent to Destroy, political scientist Eugene Finkel uncovers these deep roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Whatever the outcome of the present war, Ukraine’s staunch resistance has permanently altered its relationship to Russia and the West. Intent to Destroy offers the vital context we need to truly understand Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchel, visiting with Professor Eugene Finkel. |
| 0:08.4 | His new book is intent to destroy Russia's 200-year quest to dominate Ukraine. |
| 0:12.6 | The war in Ukraine now, a tragedy for Europe. |
| 0:16.4 | In 1940, a young man named Israel is Finkel, changes his name to Lev and joins the Russian army bravely and goes off to war for several years. |
| 0:29.1 | Eugene's grandfather. |
| 0:31.0 | Grandfather or great-grandfather, professor? |
| 0:32.9 | Grandfather. |
| 0:33.9 | Grandfather. |
| 0:34.0 | Grandfather. |
| 0:35.0 | And a demonstration that though he was Jewish, though he was from Galicia, |
| 0:40.2 | which is back and forth between Poland's empire and the Russian Empire, he fights nobly for the |
| 0:47.9 | Russian great patriotic war. That is important to fix because the Imperial Project had periods of peak and periods of valley. |
| 0:59.0 | We're probably in the valley of valleys right now. |
| 1:02.2 | Your grandfather, what was his relation to Moscow? |
| 1:05.7 | How did he think of Moscow, professor? |
| 1:08.5 | Well, for, you know, first 20-something years of his life, he had absolutely no relations |
| 1:14.4 | to Moscow. |
| 1:15.4 | He grew up, he was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. |
| 1:20.5 | He grew up in Poland. |
| 1:21.6 | He didn't speak a word of Russian until he was drafted into the Red Army. |
| 1:26.7 | And his story is not unique, right? |
| 1:29.3 | We talk about Ukraine and Russia, but there is also a part of Ukraine, which was not part |
... |
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