EIHS Lecture: Foreigners in Their Own Land: Chernobyl under the Russian Occupation (2022)

On February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, armored vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Russian occupation of the plant, which would last thirty-five days, had begun. Only the dedication and resolve of Ukrainian personnel, who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days, spared the world a new Chernobyl accident. Meanwhile, a much more dangerous situation developed at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the largest such facility in Europe. Following an attack there in March 2022, the Russian military remains in control. In this lecture Serhii Plokhii discusses the challenges that the Russian takeover of the nuclear sites presents to the world. We must face up to a new reality: there has already been warfare at two nuclear sites, and others are vulnerable. The lecture is based on Plokhii’s most recent book, Chernobyl Roulette (2024).

Serhii Plokhii (Plokhy) is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. A leading authority on Ukraine, Russia, and Eastern Europe, he has published extensively on the international history of World War II and the Cold War. His books won numerous awards, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best English-language book on international relations and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (UK). His latest book, Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone was released by W.W. Norton in US and Penguin in UK in September May 2024.

This event presented by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.