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Profs and Pints DC presents: “Ukraine and Russia—The Long-Term View,” a look at centuries of volatile relations between two nations now at war, with Eric Lohr, professor history at American University and author of two books on the history of nationality and citizenship in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union.
Before his unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February, Vladimir Putin laid out a historical case that Ukraine is not a real nation and that, essentially, Ukrainians are Russians. The course of the war has proven his assumptions to be terribly misguided. Ukrainians have rallied in national unity and, against all odds, thwarted the Russian offensive—not behavior one might expect based on Putin’s characterizations.
Profs and Pints is offering you an opportunity to step back from the daily headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how the history of Russia and Ukraine dating back three centuries helps explain today’s war. You’ll also learn how the current war is fundamentally changing those histories from the speaker, Dr. Eric Lohr, who is currently writing a history of Russian autocracy and is the author of Russian Citizenship: From Empire to Soviet Union and Nationalizing the Russian Empire: The Campaign Against Enemy Aliens during World War I.
Dr. Lohr will start with an overview of the history of various parts of Ukraine before it initially was conquered by the Russian Empire in the late 1700s. He’ll look at the rise of the Ukrainian national movement, the Soviet conquest of the independent Ukrainian state after the Russian Revolution, the development of Ukrainian language and culture during the Soviet era. He’ll also look at Ukraine’s achievement of independence in 1991, the deep divisions in Ukrainian society since 1991, and the rising tensions and conflict with Russia in the last decade.
He’ll end his talk with some thoughts on how historians will view this war in the long run of both Ukrainian and Russian history. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in. Please bring proof of vaccination as it may be required in response to local infection rates.)
Image taken from a painting by Ilya Repin, from between 1878 and 1891, that depicts the Cossacks of Eastern and Central Ukraine writing an insulting and vulgar reply to an Ottoman sultan’s 1676 demand for their submission to Ottoman rule. (State Russian Museum / Wikimedia Commons.)
