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Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was largely informed by his notion of a shared Russian-Ukrainian history, which allegedly does not give Ukraine the right to a sovereign state. The current conflict in Ukraine is, in this sense, also a dispute about history. This panel brings together two leading historians of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War to discuss the war’s roots and significance from a historical perspective. The speakers will address key questions such as: What has Ukraine’s relationship with Russia been over the long term and how might the war change it? Does the war in Ukraine mark a break with the post-Cold War order, a return to the Cold War, or the beginning of something completely new? How should we think about China’s role in the conflict? Is the war a moment of opportunity or crisis for the West?

Serhii Plokhy is Mikhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He has written broadly on the history of Eastern Europe and Ukraine, on issues ranging from the premodern and early modern history of Eastern Slavs, to the Soviet Union’s collapse, nationalism and nationalist myth-making, and Chernobyl. His many publications include Yalta: The Price of Peace, The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, and Chernobyl: The History of a Tragedy. Professor Plokhy’s most recent work, Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disaster, will be published later this year.
This event is co-sponsored by The Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History at Yale University, where he also teaches in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and serves as director of International Security Studies. Professor Westad specializes in modern international and global history, especially the history of eastern Asia since the 18th century. He has published widely on the history of the Cold War, China-Russia relations, and the Chinese civil war and Communist party, and is currently working on histories of empire and imperialism, above all in Asia. Through books such as Cold War and Revolution, Decisive Encounters, The Global Cold War, and The Cold War: A World History, Westad has revolutionized the field of Cold War history.