Timothy Snyder on Why Ukraine Can Still Win the War

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since the war in Ukraine began, the historian Timothy Snyder has made several trips to Ukraine, and it was there that he wrote parts of his newest book, “On Freedom.” The author of “Bloodlands” and “On Tyranny,” Snyder spoke in Ukrainian with soldiers, farmers, journalists, and politicians, including President Volodymyr Zelensky. He talks with David Remnick about the Ukrainian conviction that they can win the war, and the historical trends that support that conviction. But the thrust of Snyder’s new book is to apply what he learned from them to larger principles that apply to our own country. In areas taken back from Russian control, Ukrainians would tell Snyder they were “de-occupied,” rather than liberated; “freedom,” he writes, “is not just an absence of evil but a presence of good.”

“If you think that freedom is just negative,” Snyder told David Remnick, “if you think that freedom is just an absence of [evil] things, I think you then argue yourself into a position where given the absence, stuff is going to work out. … The market is going to deliver you freedom, or the founding fathers … something else is going to deliver you freedom. And that of course is wrong. It’s an essentially authoritarian conviction. Because if anyone’s going to deliver you freedom, it’s going to be you, in some way.”

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Transcript

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0:32.4	You can find links to the survey in our
0:34.0	episode and show notes. Thanks so much for listening to the political scene
0:37.8	from the political scene. I'm David Remnick. Early each week we bring you a conversation from our episode of the New Yorker radio hour.
0:57.0	In January of 2022, I talked on the program with the historian Timothy Snyder, the author of Bloodlands and on tyranny.
1:08.1	We talked about Russia and Ukraine.
1:09.8	The invasion was related to its
1:13.0	about the United States.
1:15.2	Snyder explained how Russia's military invasion of its
1:18.0	neighbor was related to its influence campaigns here in America. By encouraging the America first
1:24.8	isolationist idea to the extent that it's been successful, Putin he said
1:29.6	enables Russia to have its way in Europe.
1:33.7	Since the invasion, Timothy Snyder has made many trips to Ukraine,
1:36.9	speaking in Ukrainian, with soldiers, farmers,
1:40.0	journalists, and politicians, including President Valodermirzilensky, from a country fighting. journalists and
	...

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