This event is presented by the Center for Historical Research in the Department of History, co-sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Department of Political Science. It is a part of the Crisis, Uncertainty, and History: Trajectories and Experiences of Accelerated Change Series.
This talk will discuss the history of Russo-Ukrainian relations and its representation in both countries following the Soviet collapse in 1991. It will demonstrate how Putin’s nostalgia for the tsarist empire made Ukraine the likeliest target of Russian aggression and how Russia’s rejection of democracy determined the timing of the invasion.
Born and educated in Ukraine, Serhy Yekelchyk received a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. He is the author of seven books on modern Ukrainian history and Russo-Ukrainian relations including the award-winning Stalin’s Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War (Oxford University Press, 2014). A professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria, Yekelchyk is the current president of the Canadian Association for Ukrainian Studies.
Author of Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (2020); Stalin’s Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War ( 2014); Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (2007).
