LAST OF SOVEREIGN UKRAINE: 3/8: 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
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
1855 CRIMEAN WAR
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 | This is CBS I in the World. I'm John Batcht, visiting with Professor Eugene Finkel. His new book is |
| 0:10.6 | intent to destroy Russia's 200-year quest to dominate Ukraine. If you are puzzled these last years |
| 0:17.8 | of the Ukrainian-Russian war, it's okay because the Russians and the Ukrainians have |
| 0:22.9 | been puzzled for centuries, maybe a thousand years. Are you Ukrainian? Are you Russian? |
| 0:29.1 | Along comes Lenin and his acolytes. Lenin is a Russian nationalist. I understand he talks about |
| 0:36.1 | Marx. He talks about communism. He's a Russian |
| 0:38.7 | nationalist. His attitude towards Ukraine is the same as every other Russian in the middle classes, |
| 0:45.1 | well-educated. He's been to Europe. He believes that Ukraine is little Russia. So Lenin's |
| 0:51.8 | revolution, 1917, and then the Civil War begins, 1921, and Ukraine is caught up, |
| 0:59.1 | but at the same time the professor introduces us to two versions of the Ukrainian state. |
| 1:06.6 | They will call one the UNR and one the ZUNR. |
| 1:10.5 | Who were they? |
| 1:11.1 | What were they? |
| 1:11.8 | What were their ambitions, Professor? |
| 1:14.3 | Right. |
| 1:14.6 | So, 1917, 1918 empires collapsed the German Empire, but more importantly for our story, |
| 1:22.3 | the Russian Empire and the also Hungarian Empire. |
| 1:25.2 | When the Russian Empire collapses and the communists come to power in St. Petersburg, |
| 1:33.2 | people in Ukraine have other ideas. |
| 1:36.3 | They don't want to be ruled by communists, |
| 1:40.0 | and they don't want to be treated like Russians anymore. |
| 1:45.5 | So they decide to go their own way and out of the collapse of the Russian Empire. |
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