Serhii Plokhy: History of Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Nazis & War | Lex Fridman Podcast  

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. Transcript: lexfridman.com/serhii-plokhy-transcript 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - Eight Sleep: eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - Shopify: shopify.com/lex to get $1 per month trial - NetSuite: netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - AG1: drinkag1.com/lex to get 1 month supply of fish oil 1:18 - Collapse of the Soviet Union 17:27 - Origins of Russia and Ukraine 30:30 - Ukrainian nationalism 38:13 - Stepan Bandera 1:07:13 - KGB 1:22:11 - War in Ukraine 1:58:27 - NATO and Russia 2:09:30 - Peace talks 2:23:17 - Ukrainian Army head Valerii Zaluzhnyi 2:29:54 - Power and War 2:40:45 - Holodomor 2:47:17 - Chernobyl 2:57:51 - Nuclear power 3:07:28 - Future of the world

Whoever was doing the subtitles kept writing "Kazakhs" whenever he said "Cossacks". There's a big difference between the two groups.

Lex, I don't know how often you read your comments but listening to your podcasts with political thinkers and historians has done a lot for me. I started college at 16 and have delayed my graduation over and over again because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I majored in Political Science. The amount of knowledge that I had gained from these podcasts had inspired me to open up a few books and it reignited my interest in my field, making me happy to finally decide to make a career out of this. Thank you

There are mistakes in the subtitles. When Serhii Plokhy talks about Cossacks, in the subtitles we see "Kazakhs".

Пан Сергій - фаховий та поважний вчений. На питання "в чому сенс вторгнення в 2022?" майстерно почав з "коли війна почалась в 2014..." Brilliantly

You need to invite Timothy Snyder too.

Better later then never: 1st Ukrainian voice on this podcast for last 2 years

Lex, this is a great interview! Have you considered mediating a debate between Plokhy and Mearsheimer, whose theories go unchallenged?

One minor correction (at 18:44): "Once we had Czechoslovaks, now we have Czechs and Slovaks." Sorry for going nitpicky, but compared to the others mentioned, it's a bit misleading. Slovaks, Moravians and Czechs (going east-to-west) can technically be taken as three stages of settling in one direction of the slavic diaspora. But Czechoslovakia and the idea of a joint nation is an invention of the early 20th Century, made out of sheer convenience to make a better case for RE-establishing a country after the breakup of Austro-Hungaria. Sadly enough, the wider English culture remains oblivious to anything that went on between the German and Russian lands prior to Napoleon winning at Austerlitz. Like... Czechs having a fairly singificant presence in Europe for centuries as a nation and kingdom (until the 1620 Battle of White Mountain), even having one of their major monarchs as the Holy Roman Emperor (Charles IV, recently elevated from virtually-unknown to somewhat-known worldwide thanks to the game Kingdom Come: Deliverance). Czechs and Slovaks exist as separate nations/ethnics/... since pre-1000AD and in the case of Czechs, the oldest written local sources go down to the 13th Century. Differences between Czechs and Moravians are barely worth mentioning, as both groups always maintained close ties. But Slovaks were largely separated from much of their western kin most of the time, mostly due to geographic and political reasons. The Czechoslovak get-together-again after WW1 was an idealistic political stunt that looked great on paper back then, but was doomed to fail in the long run in any case. This would be worth a whole socio-economic lecture. Also, the thing about "Bohemia" and "Bohemians" is a sad historical misnomer worthy of an entire lecture too.

Please lex, have more historians. Thanks for the conversations

The Canadian parliament clearly said he fought against Russia in WW2. They knew exactly who he was.

from 2:43:00-2:47:00 in this interview: I was taken with S.P.'s way of expressing a very wise observation. Thanks, Lex, for once again helping us to understand the issues of the day by interviewing some of the most thoughtful folk on these topics.

11:52 Serhii mentions that "level of russification is much higher" in the post soviet state of Russia. The closed captions says 'unification' rather than 'russification.' This mistranslation/ failure at writing the correct words used is something that should be corrected, as the meaning conveyed by those two terms is strikingly different for everyone who is not perhaps Russian.....

Finland is not same as Ukraine from Putins point of view

Thank you both for a truly worthwhile 3+ hours, previously I had a rather sketchy knowledge (very sketch)y!) of Ukrainian history, I now feel I might be in a position to learn a lot more - re-read Bloodlands, listen to your program once again, buy a book or two of the professor’s books.

I also liked Timothy Snider’s work of Ukrainian history. Such a great work. With it’s dark and bright sides revealed. Thank you Lex for interesting interview ❤

My great grandmother was from Nova Lesna, Slovakia so I am eager to hear this episode and learn more about that time. Many thanks

Would love to see you interview Zelensky (and ask all the hard questions I personally want to hear answered as a Ukrainian) !

On a visit to Soviet Kiev in 1981, with a friend with relatives there, it was still apparent that Ukrainians were being spied upon. In fact our Intourist guides were particularly interested in my friend, whose name ended in "-enko", an Ukrainian surname, and were very inquisitive about our movements on the days when we did not take part on official visits or outings with the tour group. They were also rather inquisitive during our stays in Leningrad and Moscow, asking me, with a few months of evening school Russian lessons, a lot of questions about my friend, who spoke rather more Russian than I did.

The "Cossacks" are wrongly transcribed in the subtitles as "Kazakhs". These are two very different things. Please correct it.

As a Ukrainian I'd like to note a thing about languages. Ukrainian is really close to Belarusian and I've heard conversations where two people would speak their native languages and it was easily comprehensive. As far as I know russians have troubles comprehending both Ukrainian and Belarusian languages due to very different vocabulary and very distinct phonetics.

I am a Canadian with mixed Russian-Ukrainian ethnic background. Therefore the blunder in Canadian Parliament concerns me directly. It is so good to see that Dr. Plokhy is given a floor to lay out his views. I congratulate Lex on making it happen, Lex’s interview style is excellent for seeking the truth. In order to have a 3D view of a complex subject, one must be able to view it from several perspectives. In the last 10 to 15 years there has been a lot of academic research in Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany, Poland that was able to use the previously inaccessible archives on the difficult subject of nationalism in interwar, WW2 and post-WW2 period. There is also research on the role of Ukrainian extreme nationalists and far-right nationalists in the last few decades. I would encourage those who want to better understand the subject to become familiar with the works of those researcher, some which are given below. It is a pity that the OUN(b)’s own involvement in atrocities against Poles, Jews, Ukrainians and Russians is not given sufficient attention. Focusing exclusively on collaboration with German Nazis does not address heads-on the fascist ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist Bandera’s faction known as OUN(b) by it Ukrainian acronym. The fact that OUN(b) fought, as they claim, for Ukrainian independence does not absolve them from either collaboration with German Nazis nor their own atrocities. Similarly, the fact that Stalin collaborated with the Nazi Germany does not absolve OUN(b) actions and those persons involved in them. John-Paul Himka Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Canada. He is a Canadian, an ethnic Ukrainian who believes it is critical to face the difficult history heads-on, rather than ignoring, cherry-picking or worse yet, whitewashing it. This is what allows one to separate wheat from the chaff and tell the good from the evil. He considers that heroization of OUN(b) and whitewashing their atrocities is a bland spot in the collective memory of the Ukrainian diaspora. This is in fact the root cause of the blunder of the Canadian Parliament giving a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a SS Galizien Nazi member, rather than some inexplicable mix-up which the Government officials cite. www.academia.edu/104655067/War_Criminality_A_Blank_Spot_in_the_Collective_Memory_of_the_Ukrainian_Diaspora Chrystia Freedland, Deputy Prime Minister was present in the Parliament and she clapped to Hunka enthusiastically. She is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian and spent a significant amount of time in Ukraine and Russia. She cannot plausibly claim ignorance of the subject of the involvement of Ukrainian nationalists and their atrocities during WW2 in inter- and post-war periods against Poles, Jews, Ukrainians and Russians. Her grandfather Michael Chomiak was the editor of Krakowski Visti, a Ukrainian Nationalistic newspaper in WW2 period that collaborated with Nazis and published antisemitic material and promoted Galizien SS Division. Chrystia Freeland must be well aware of John-Paul Himka research, who is, in fact, her uncle and son-in-law of Michael Chomiak. Freeland is actually acknowledged by Himka for helping to get some details rights in one of John-Paul Himka’s earlier papers. Skillful propaganda will certainly use some true facts, and the mere use of them by propaganda does not render them false. To effectively respond to propaganda it is essential to be able to handle the difficult truth heads-on, rather than brushing it away by saying “it is propaganda”. Silencing or ignoring those who point to the difficult truth does a disservice to the truth. So far, Canadian Government was unable to handle the truth on the difficult subject of the past Nazi war criminal. Anders Per Rudling, associate professor at the Lund University in Sweden. His research included Ukrainian Nationalism interwar, WW2 and post-WW2 period. Also - the Ukrainian Nationalism in Canada and whitewashing OUN (b) history in post-WW2 period. He authored many academic papers, as well as articles in the press on the subject. Below is one of the most recent ones. Attempts were made on to silence him and his research. Rudling, P. A. (2022). The Far-Right Ukrainian Diaspora's Policing of History. In N. Mörner (Ed.), The Many Faces of the Far Right in the Post-Communist Space: A Comparative Study on Far-Right Movements and Identity in the Region (pp. 42-60). sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1640388/FULLTEXT01.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1SzqDH53e9ffiPJIhYQ__jKYzlNRtV3xzFuomlz9nrw3eqz8SuWKh_SPU#page=42 Rudling, P. A., & McBride, J. (2024). By opening up the archives, Canada can finally address its past with Nazi war criminals. The Globe and Mail. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-by-opening-up-the-archives-canada-can-finally-address-its-past-with/#comments Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, Research Associate and Lecturer Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut in Germany. His PhD thesis was on Stepan Bandera. Here is an article he wrote on the subject: www.academia.edu/9780848/Stepan_Bandera_The_Life_and_Afterlife_of_a_Ukrainian_Nationalist_Fascism_Genocide_and_Cult_Stuttgart_Ibidem_Press_2014_ Ivan Katchanovsky, professor at the University of Ottawa www.academia.edu/41023574/The_Far_Right_the_Euromaidan_and_the_Maidan_Massacre_in_Ukraine

Started watching this, 30 mins in I paused, read several works by, or about Pushkin, Tolstoy, Trotsky, Dostoevsky, and others. Now I am coming back to finish watching the rest of the video, with some context. Thanks Mr Friedman...

When professor says “we should do what our predecessors did in the Cold War” what does he mean? He was in the Soviet Union at a time, studying in a University in Moscow. Who is “we” in this case and who are his “predecessors”?

This episode is a special one truly considering what is going on in the world right now. Also, I'm Lithuanian so I'm especially grateful for this one, Lex. Thank you Lex and Mr. Serhii Plokhy!

Lex always gets the best guests. I respect his interview style and his intellect, he’s not an ideologue.

By far, the best interviews (IMHO) are the ones with historians. Mindbenders all!

Genius guest Lex. Love the way you draw the info out.

It’s so important to hear more Ukrainian voices on platforms like Lex’s to connect more to the ongoing war and the people in it.

Wow, Lex. It took me three days to get through the whole thing. Boy was it worth it. This was a really good interview! Thanks.

Very nice overview of the historical landscape around Ukraine. Like the way Serhii tells history, it's not boring at all. Read one of his books, worth reading

Would be lovely for Lex to facilitate discussion between Mearsheimer (or someone else) and this professor. I feel like both have some holes in their line of argumentation and it would enrich us the listeners even more 😉

Thanks, Lex, for the awesome podcast episode, especially in these uncertain times. The guest was really inspiring, and I learned a lot about the nearby Slavic regions from the impressive historical insights shared.

I really appreciated this. Thank you - I have subscribed and look forward to listening to other podcasts.

Aleksandar, congratulations for questions asked, as well as a very calm manner of interviewing respected Ukrainian Professor. Both of you have a nice Slavic accent and I am happy that you are not hiding it. It would be interesting if your interviewee would be in a debate in which slightly different opinions would be on the table. However, the Ukrainian Professor delivered his version of the truth. Another dimension which I want to stress is that this horrible conflict had to be avoided, because Slavic people are killing Slavic people. Let us talk about the outcome of this conflict in a couple of years, hoping that in the meantime the entire Europe will not be already totally destroyed, or burning. Actually, I like the patriotic segments of the speech of your interviewee.

maybe it's time to interview Timothy Snyder?

Thank you for this incredible interview. Thank you Lex for doing this.

Lex, it was another great podcast. When will you be interviewing Serhii Horoshiy?

Wonderful! Listened for whole 3 hours

Lex, I admire your dedication to get to the bottom of issues however complicated and tangled these issues may be. Great podcast. Thank you for your work!

I’ve learned much from this session. Fascinating insights into what has led to today’s situation.

One question - where is the USA during these turbulent times???

@lexfridman What's your opinion on Interviewing the political scientist: George Friedman (Friedman György)

Dr Fridman, thank you for doing what you do, I so enjoy your analysis and general conversation with people of all backgrounds

At the 1:41 mark Serhii talks about Ukraine being a truly bilingual country. Could this also apply also in Slovakia? Not to quibble on a minor point, but I think many Slovaks can speak and understand Czech. But maybe they're closer linguistically than Russian and Ukrainian. I don't know. Perhaps someone can speak to this. Thank you for the interview. Very knowledgeable guest and Lex you always do great work as an interviewer.

Amazing historical talk, for learning from experts, and how your own personal perspective from family history played into the conversation. I'm new to your podcasts, but avidly watching them now. Thank you.

Does his last name literally translate as "bad"? (I know погано is "bad" in Ukrainian, but плохії means that as well (or "the bad ones" according to Google translate))

I hope you have Henry Rollins as a guest. A conversation between you two would be fascinating given Henry's travels and humanitarian views.

Question unrelated to the video: why do reactions often not get through, despite them not violating community guidelines? I have written a lot of reactions below the video and they just don't show up. It's highly frustrating.

Information about the tzarand the Russian orthodox cchurch please

What a great, deeply informative episode. It's a shame it has more than 10 times less views than the one with Tucker

Lex, when the full scale invasion of Ukraine started I was finishing my philosophy undergrad at Columbia University. Being a Marine Corps veteran I decided to volunteer and headed to Ukraine (first time there with no ties to the country) during my time there I got to emerge myself into the culture, the people, the history, the sorrows, pains, loses, and victories. I went in part (to the extent that we can understand a segment of why we do what we do) for the love of what the Ukrainian people were doing (and not out of hate for Russia). Just wanted to thank you for being the voice of reason and knowledge. I listened to your interview with Tucker Carlson (and many other referring to this war) and your ability to listen to and acknowledge multiple perspectives is extremely refreshing. Keep doing such an amazing job. May you continue to spark brilliant discussions around the world. P.S. would love you to interview the president of El Salvador, Nayib Armado. It would be a fascinating podcast

I hosted 30-40 player diplomacy games for people back in 2014 where each player got to play as a country and roleplay modern geopolitics. I didn't understand at the time (was a kid), but someone told me it was very important to include Ukraine as a separate country from Russia. I split them up and gave Ukraine control of Romania and some Baltic states (every part of the world had to be owned by some player at game start, there were only 40 players maximum and previous game hosts had Ukraine and Russia together). I didn't realize at the time the geopolitical implications for what I did. All I knew was that I made someone happy and it meant a lot to me.

Thank you, very interesting and educative as always!❤ Just a small remark - 2:28 - he doesn’t speak foreign language (as said in the subtitles), he names different cities - “Kiev, Minsk and Dushanbe - left in different countries”

Thank you for finally interviewing someone who is not obviously pro-Russian when it comes to this war.

Great interview Lex, very good to see more intelligent people on your podcast! Mr. Plokhy shed so much light on Russia-Ukraine conflict very interesting conversation and I loved the quote in the end!

I wish to see discussion on this topic between profesor Measheimer, Dougles Mac Greggor, profesor Sachs vs Serhii Plokhy

Great interview.

thank you for a great episode and an amazing guest!

At 1:15:31 he says Komsomol leaders (Soviet youth political organization), not council leaders, 1:15:47 - indistinct word here is Politburo, and at 1:16:07 is mentioned Brezhnev, not Beria (Beria is long gone by that time). 1:16:14 - in foreign language he means Siloviki, which is Russian umbrella term for military, security, and police state organizations.

The unanswered question of how we managed to keep the war cold after WWII was a key to the question of to how to put the sides to the table.

High quality, So interesting, thank you

Thank you, Lex. That was very interesting.

Delighted to listen to the talk. It seems to me that, closer to the beginning of the fourth hour of the talk, both gentlemen started to feel tired, especially Lex.

Very interesting! Thank you!

VERY INFORMATIVE-THANK YOU

Thank you for an interesting guest and a great interview. I have wanted to read one of his books for a while. But have never gotten to it.

Listened to this episode on Apple Podcasts and liked it enough to come here and leave a like!

After the first three months of the recruitment drive, there were 80,000 volunteers for the SS Division Galicia, out of which 53,000 were admitted. About 25,000 were deemed fit for service and 13,245 passed the medical examination. They were sent to training, and 1,487 were dropped during the training period, leaving the division with 11,758 personnel.

"the atmosphere is not conducive to independent analysis" preete good conclusion..

Loving the history podcasts. Thanks Lex.

Thank you for the interview.

This is good one

Nice to know Harvard can still offer some quality.

Wonderful and timely guest! Lex I noticed the essential water on the desk. Since they aren’t listed in your sponsors, I thought I would comment on this product. It was my water of choice for nearly a year before, realizing my health began to deteriorate. I couldn’t get enough of this clean cold, delicious tasting water. but the high alkalinity caused Gerd and dysfunction of my gallbladder. With no other interventions, I ceased drinking the water and all of the symptoms, the burning in my throat. The indigestion, and the pain in my gallbladder went away. I did some research online and learned that, although it sounds counterintuitive, too much alkalinity in the stomach is not good for digestion. So many of these new fad health waters are anything but healthy.

I appreciate a viewpoint that I don't necessarily buy in on. Thanks Lex.

Lex you have to interview Peter Turchin. I think you two might get a long well and you’d think his perspective on the war is interesting

Hi Lex, this is a great job you are doing. I would like to see you debate the Czechoslovak Legions from 1914-1920 with an expert. BTW I just played the game "Last Train Home" which is about this. And it's an incredible story.

Thanks for this interview, now I want to read this man's books,.❤

Wow.. Thanks for such an informative podcast!

Another great interview Lex, my thanks to you both for the time invested in having such an in depth discussion to share with us.

Thank you for this discussion 🇺🇦

This is a balanced approach on discussing the current war. Well done, Lex! Listening to your podcasts is an antidote to my biases.

GREAT interview, Lex, I sincerely appreciate your attention and being able to LISTEN, not just ask (very smart) questions.

How is Ukraine a Democracy ? When the "election" outcome was exactly what Victoria Nuland described in that "phone call"

You mentioned the "Russian Hand" in the Donbass , But you failed to mention the "American Hand" at the Maidan

Great conversation Lex. Thank you.

thanks for this

This is in agreement with Pro. Snyder’s classes on Ukraine. Nice to see academics in agreement

Thank you very much for this amazing interview 😊

Why would you use that as a opening clip?

Thank you both for a informed conversation. Taras Shencko was finnally mentioned in the independence for Ukraine. We had his picture on our wall and in every Ukrainian household I've ever been in. I would always hear Shachenko said ...

Великолепный выпуск! Огромное спасибо🙏🏼 привет из Москвы 💔

A truly brilliant interview, thank you!

You should invite a guest to have a discussion on the birth rate crisis that is occuring in South Korea. The slow death of a society and finding out the reason behind it seems to me to be more urgent then an endless sequence on 'War' where the rest of humanity is left out from the discussion and political interest is the major driving force behind it

Great insights here makes this a great interview. I am a great believer that circumstances make leaders and leaders create circumstances. Thank you Lex.

Ty Lex. This is such an incredibly important part our collective history

Lex, переведи, пожалуйста, все интервью на русский. Впервые я смотрел твоё интервью об ИИ, было очень интересно, не знаю причем на каком канале оно было выложено. Также посмотрел интервью с Карлсоном тоже очень интересно.

Lex, great work. Big support. Thank you.

Lex, I wish you'd have Alexander Mercoulis and this man on together....I've never heard two more aware, comprehensive, intelligent, voices on these subjects. Thank you for this podcast.