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Serhii Plokhy

What Serhii Plokhy thinks about war

@serhii-plokhy · 30 positions · On ppll ↗

Ukrainian-American historian, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Serhii Plokhy did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Serhii Plokhy on war. See everyone on war

17 dated positions, 2024, in their own words. Our reading of what Serhii Plokhy has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingThe collapse of communism, the end of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union were three different processes, and people constantly confuse them.

    Their wordsVery often people confuse three different processes that were taking place in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and the one was the collapse of communism as ideology. Another was the end of the Cold War. And the third one was the end of the Soviet Union.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 1st of 30 in this recording

  3. Our readingUkraine's vote for independence is what ended the Soviet Union, and Ukraine is exactly as decisive today for anyone wanting to restore Russian control over the post-Soviet space.

    Russia

    Their wordsAnd the combination of all this factors led to the processes in which Ukraine’s decision to go independent spelled the end to the Soviet Union. And if today anybody wants to restore, not the Soviet Union, but some form of Russian control over the post-Soviet space, Ukraine is as important today as it was back in December of 1991.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 7th of 30 in this recording

  5. Our readingCalling Bandera a Nazi collaborator gives you exactly the same grounds for calling Stalin one, because the years of collaboration were the same years.

    Their wordsIf you focus on the years of collaboration, those were the same years when Joseph Stalin collaborated with Hitler, right? So, we have the same reason to call Stalin Nazi collaborator as we have the reason to call Bandera Nazi collaborator.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 11th of 30 in this recording

  7. Our readingBandera is a symbol of resistance to Soviet occupation for a fight he could not have led, because he was not in Ukraine at the time.

    Their wordsAgain, we are talking here about myth and mythology, because Bandera was not leading the fight against the Soviet occupation in Ukraine because, at that time, he was just simply not in Ukraine. He was in Germany.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 12th of 30 in this recording

  9. Our readingThere are Nazis and white supremacists in Ukraine, but they are more marginal there than the same groups are in Central Europe or the United States.

    EuropeAmerica

    Their wordsMy understanding is there are Nazis in Ukraine and there are supporters of white supremacy theories, but also my understanding is that they are extremely marginal and they are more marginal than the same sort of groups are in Central Europe, maybe in the U.S. as well.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 13th of 30 in this recording

  11. Our readingUkraine, at war, is the country with no right or far right in its parliament, which cannot be said of Germany or France.

    Their wordsSo, Ukraine is the country where there is no right or far right in the Parliament. We can’t say that about Germany, we can’t say that about France, so that’s just one more way to stress this unique place of Ukraine in that sense.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 14th of 30 in this recording

  13. Our readingDefining Ukraine's war record by the 20,000 men of the Division Galizien makes the 2 to 3 million Ukrainians who fought in the Red Army irrelevant, which is what propaganda is for.

    Their wordsSo, there is a period of collaboration, and that’s what propaganda tries to define him by, or there is a Division Galizien by 20,000 people, and somehow it makes irrelevant the experience of 2-3 million people.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 16th of 30 in this recording

  15. Our readingThe Russian language is not persecuted in Ukraine, and believing that it is has one important precondition: never having set foot in the country.

    Russia

    Their wordsSo, imagine under those conditions and context that someone is persecuting ethnic Russians or Russian speakers. One, to believe in something like that, one important precondition is never to step your foot in Ukraine.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 18th of 30 in this recording

  17. Our readingRussians and Ukrainians behave differently even when they speak the same language: police violence ended the protests at Bolotnaya and began them on the Maidan.

    Russia

    Their wordsYou have Bolotnaya in Moscow and police violence, and that’s the end of it. You have the Maidan in Ukraine and you have police violence, and that’s the beginning, that’s not the end.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 19th of 30 in this recording

  19. Our readingNATO was the justification for the invasion of Ukraine and not its cause: if it were the real concern, half the Russian army would have moved to the new Finnish border.

    Russia

    Their wordsSo if NATO is the real concern, it would be probably not completely unreasonable to expect that if not every single soldier, but at least half of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine would be moved to protect the new border with NATO in Finland.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 21st of 30 in this recording

  21. Our readingBoris Johnson did not talk Ukraine out of a peace deal: it is not possible to imagine Zelensky taking orders from anybody against his own judgement.

    Their wordsI asked people who accompanied Boris Johnson to Kiev that question, the answer was no. And I believe this answer, and I’ll tell you why. Because it is very difficult for me to imagine President Zelensky to take orders from anybody in the world.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 22nd of 30 in this recording

  23. Our readingWriting five Ukrainian regions into the Russian constitution tied the hands of Putin and of any successor: there is no return to the borders of 2022 without political change in Moscow.

    Russia

    Their wordsSo that means that no return to the borders of 2022 without political change in Moscow are possible.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 23rd of 30 in this recording

  25. Our readingThe war Russia is fighting in Ukraine is, in intellectual terms, the plan Solzhenitsyn formulated: a Russian nation state of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, and failing that, Donbas, Crimea and southern Ukraine.

    Russia

    Their wordsSo in historical terms and intellectual terms, what is happening today in the war between Russia and Ukraine is the vision on one level or another level that was formulated by the noble laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, half Russian, half Ukrainian.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 24th of 30 in this recording

  27. Our readingThe Soviet Union fell in good part because of the mobilisation over Chernobyl: the first mass demonstrations in Ukraine were about radiation, not about language or autonomy.

    energynuclear power

    Their wordsAnd then guess what? A few years later, the Soviet Union collapses very much also thanks to the mobilization of people over the issue of Chernobyl and nuclear energy.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 25th of 30 in this recording

  29. Our readingThe right question about the Cold War is not what we did wrong but what we did so right that seventy years passed without a world war.

    Their wordsThe right question to ask is how did it happen? What did we do so right that for now more than 70 years, we don’t have a world war? How come that after World War I, World War II came within 20 years?

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 28th of 30 in this recording

  31. Our readingLeaders in a nuclear crisis who believe they are in control are not in control, and events on the ground can escalate against their wishes.

    Their wordsSo people who believe that they’re in control really are not in control, and that can escalate whether they very often against their wishes.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 29th of 30 in this recording

  33. Our readingThe Cuban missile crisis was caused by nuclear weapons and resolved by them: what saved the world was not the weapons but two leaders who were frightened of them, and that fear has faded.

    Their wordsThe crisis occurred because of the nuclear weapons, because Khrushchev put them on Cuba, but the crisis was resolved and we didn’t end in the third World War because of the nuclear weapons, because people, leaders were afraid of them.

    ↗Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast #415youtube.com 30th of 30 in this recording