WCEE Lecture. The Roots of Russia’s War on Ukraine

Putin’s regime has advanced various pretexts for invading Ukraine, including NATO expansion, Ukraine’s alleged “neo-Nazi government,” and a supposed genocide against ethnic Russians in the Donbas. These false claims are rooted in a narrative of the so-called historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians. After tracing the historical origins of Russia’s unwillingness to accept an independent Ukrainian state, this talk examines these Putinist narratives alongside the real motivations behind Russian aggression, which lie in late Soviet and post-Soviet developments. Key factors include diverging political and social trajectories in Russia and Ukraine, conflicting interpretations of the Soviet past, and the distorted perception of Ukraine shared by Putinist elites and many ordinary Russians. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not merely about reclaiming historically “Russian” territories; it is also an attempt to eliminate a political and social model that the Russian dictator finds profoundly threatening. In this sense, the war represents an extension of his assault on Russia’s own civil society as well as a continuation of a long-standing Russian crusade against Western influences.

Born and educated in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, Serhy Yekelchyk received a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. He is the author of eight books on modern Ukrainian history, Stalinism, and Russo-Ukrainian relations. His monograph Stalin’s Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War (Oxford University Press, 2014) was the recipient of the Best Book Award from the American Association for Ukrainian Studies, and its Ukrainian translation in 2019 received a special diploma of the Lviv Book Forum. His survey of Ukrainian history, Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (Oxford University Press, 2007), was Choice Magazine’s Book of the Year and went on to be translated into five languages. Yekelchyk is currently working on the third, considerably expanded, edition of his popular book about the Euromaidan Revolution and Russian aggression in Ukraine, Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2020). Yekelchyk has written op-eds for the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Politico. His interview credits include the BBC History Magazine, CNN, the New York Times, and numerous other international media outlets. A professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria, Yekelchyk is current president of the Canadian Association for Ukrainian Studies.

Zoom Registration Link: https://myumi.ch/z98x4

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at gosiak@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.