What drives Russia's violence in and against Ukraine from the 19th century to 2024?

Professor Eugene Finkel (Johns Hopkins University) will present his recent book on the roots of the Russo-Ukraine War as part of the CORE-lecture series at the Department of Comparative Politics.

The book Intent to Destroy (2024, Basic Books) uncovers the roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukraine is a key borderland between Russia and the West, and, following the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, dominating Ukraine became the cornerstone of Russian policy. The Russian Empire, USSR and Putin’s Russia had long used violence to successfully crush Ukrainian efforts to chart a separate path. Today’s violence is just a more extreme version of Russia’s past efforts. But unlike in the past, the people of Ukraine have overcome their deep internal divisions, and this rise of civic Ukrainian nationalism explains successful resistance to the invasion

Eugene Finkel is Kenneth H. Keller Professor of International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Finkel is born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. His articles have been published in American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political studies and numerous other journals. He is the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017), Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press, 2020, co-authored with Scott Gehlbach) and Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics and Security in Putin’s Russia (Oxford University Press, 2023, co-authored with Janetta Azarieva and Yitzhak M. Brudny). His most recent book is Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine (Basic Books, 2024).