The unpredictable mindset of the man who plunged Eastern Europe into war is raising the risks of a wider conflict involving NATO members, against which Russian President Vladimir Putin has floated the possibility of using nuclear weapons.
The way preeminent military historian Antony Beevor sees it, Mr. Putin is a “dangerous beast” who is trying to undo the mistakes of Lenin and Stalin by erasing Ukraine’s independence – although the Russian invasion has encountered stiffer resistance than anticipated by the attackers.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Mr. Beevor, whose forthcoming book covers a crucial period of Russian imperial and revolutionary history, discusses the ways in which Mr. Putin uses and misuses history to justify his foreign policy. Moreover, Mr. Putin has fallen into the same trap as past Russian and Soviet leaders who believed their nation was being encircled by implacable enemies.
“You can go all the way to the Kievan Rus’, this idea of a Slav homeland which in those days did include Ukraine, Russia, and Byelorussia… and this notion of encirclement, that the world was against them, has very deep roots,” Mr. Beevor said.
“This is quite clear from Putin’s extraordinary history lecture. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is completely ludicrous… Here we find someone who has so lamented the fall of the Soviet Union, saying it was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, and yet he is now blaming Lenin for allowing the principle that the different national republics should have equal say,” said Mr. Beevor, referring to the establishment of the Ukraine S.S.R. in 1922.
This mistake, in Mr. Putin’s view, allowed for the idea of a Ukrainian nation to take hold when Ukraine always belonged to Russia.
To listen to the full interview with Mr. Beevor, download this episode of History As It Happens.
