LAST OF SOVEREIGN UKRAINE: 7/8: 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
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
1855 GRENADIER GUARDS
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 with Professor Eugene Finkel of Johns Hopkins. His book is intent to destroy |
| 0:04.9 | Russia's 200-year quest to dominate Ukraine. The cruelty of the war waged by the Russian forces |
| 0:11.2 | these last years against Ukraine is in the newspaper all the time. Where did it come from? |
| 0:17.1 | I have a periccabi from a letter that the professor quotes from Stalin to Gajvili to Kaganovich, August 11th, 1932. |
| 0:29.8 | Stalin writes, things in Ukraine are terrible. About 50 district committees spoke up against the grain procurement plan, called it unrealistic. |
| 0:40.0 | What is this? It is not a party, but a parliament, a caricature of a parliament. |
| 0:45.4 | If we don't start improving this situation now, we might lose Ukraine. Also, keep in mind that in Ukraine's |
| 0:53.3 | Communist Party, 500,000 members, ha ha, right Stalin, |
| 0:57.5 | there are not a few, yes, not a few, rotten elements, conscious and unconscious, petlerites. |
| 1:05.6 | Professor, I was struck by that letter because Stalin, who is often presented to me as a true believer, a Marxist-Leninist, a man who believes in transforming human beings into the new man, that letter is written by a cynic and a brute. |
| 1:22.5 | Is that the origin of the brutality that Vladimir Putin represents here in the Americas. |
| 1:28.3 | That brutality towards people whom he regards is, I don't know, he doesn't treat them as respectable human beings. |
| 1:35.3 | He treats them as somebody to be brutalized until they disappear. |
| 1:40.3 | Right. So I'm not sure, you know, this starts with Stalin. Stalin certainly does represent |
| 1:46.2 | this brutal, this Russian slash Soviet brutality and willingness to use extreme violence, |
| 1:52.7 | but it started even before Stalin. Human life is very cheap in Russia. It was very cheap in the |
| 1:59.5 | Soviet Union. It was very cheap in the, |
| 2:02.3 | you know, in the Russian Empire. And that's also what we see in Ukraine right now. So, so the Soviet |
| 2:11.1 | and the Russian government, both the imperial and Putin's government, is more than willing to use |
| 2:16.4 | violence to subjugate Ukraine. |
| 2:18.3 | They would rather do it peacefully, of course. |
| 2:20.3 | Violence is costly, but when they can do it by peace, |
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