Lex Fridman Podcast
#415 – Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War
Mon, 04 Mar 2024
Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian historian at Harvard University, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, and an author of many books on history of Eastern Europe, including his latest book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex to get $1 per month trial - NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - AG1: https://drinkag1.com/lex to get 1 month supply of fish oil Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/serhii-plokhy-transcript EPISODE LINKS: Serhii's X: https://x.com/splokhy Serhii's Website: https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/serhii-plokhii Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute: https://huri.harvard.edu/ Serhii's Books: https://amzn.to/3OS2EqK 2006 - The Origins of the Slavic Nations 2010 - Yalta: The Price of Peace 2012 - The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires 2014 - The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union 2015 - The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine 2016 - The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story 2017 - Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation 2018 - Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy 2021 - Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis 2021 - The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine's Past and Present 2022 - Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disaster 2023 - The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (09:10) - Collapse of the Soviet Union (25:19) - Origins of Russia and Ukraine (38:22) - Ukrainian nationalism (46:04) - Stepan Bandera (1:15:05) - KGB (1:30:03) - War in Ukraine (2:06:19) - NATO and Russia (2:17:22) - Peace talks (2:31:09) - Ukrainian Army head Valerii Zaluzhnyi (2:37:46) - Power and War (2:48:37) - Holodomor (2:55:09) - Chernobyl (3:05:43) - Nuclear power (3:15:20) - Future of the world
Full Episode
The following is a conversation with Serhii Plohi, a historian at Harvard University and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, also at Harvard. As a historian, he specializes in the history of Eastern Europe with an emphasis on Ukraine.
He wrote a lot of great books on Ukraine and Russia, the Soviet Union, on Slavic peoples in general across centuries, on Chernobyl and nuclear disasters, and on the current war in Ukraine. A book titled The Russo-Ukrainian War, The Return of History. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It is, in fact, the best way to support this podcast.
We got Eight Sleep for naps, Shopify for making stores, and that's sweet for business stuff and AG1 for just health. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our amazing team or just get in touch with me, go to lexfriedman.com slash contact. And now, on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle.
I try to make these interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will, too. Now, let's talk about naps. This episode is brought to you by 8sleep, and it's a Pod 3 cover. It cools the bed down to whatever you want. There's a setting from, I guess, 0 to 10. I guess when it's a 10, like a negative 10, it'll probably get you down to, like,
As low as 65 degrees. That's such a cool feeling. Pun unintended. It's just this comforting chill that goes through your body while you have a warm blanket on top. It actually reminds me of desserts I've had a long time ago. One of the things with eating very low carb is you don't really partake in desserts. But I love watching other people enjoy desserts.
I just love being together with people and enjoying cool food. So if that requires eating desserts, I will. It's not like I'm very strict on the whole thing. Anyway, the reason I mention it is I remember first discovering how incredible it is to have a hot brownie, let's say, or any kind of chocolatey cake thing with ice cream on top. So you got the hot and the cold, and it combines beautifully.
I don't understand why that is, but even thinking about it now makes me want to throw my life away for just a brownie with some ice cream on top of it. That's how I feel when I'm taking a nap on Eight Sleep. Anyway, you can feel the same kind of thing if you check them out and get special savings when you go to eightsleep.com slash Lex.
This episode is also brought to you by Shopify, the platform I use to make a store. I think the address is lexfriedman.com slash store. It forwards you to whatever the Shopify thing is, and there you can get a few shirts. If you want to sell shirts, if you want to sell all kinds of stuff, you can use Shopify, super easy. You know what is best? Capitalism is a system that empowers the little guy.
As long as you got a cool thing, you can find a person that wants to buy that cool thing. And if the thing is super cool, then there's going to be word of mouth. People that use it are going to tell others to use it, and then you can build a giant business on it. Small businesses, medium-sized business, giant business, at its best. The competition of the market can enable that.
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