Ukraine and Putin between history and ideology

ASERI is pleased to present the volume

Ukraine and Putin between history and ideology

by Andrea Graziosi
Publishers Laterza

Thursday 4 May 2023, 4.00 p.m.

in ASERI (Via San Vittore 18) and ONLINE

Introduces:

Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, Director of ASERI

Intervenes:

Andrea Graziosi, Professor of Contemporary History, University of Naples Federico II

Why did Putin think he could conquer Ukraine in a few days with the consent of the Russians but also of the Ukrainians? What does 'denazification' mean? To explain this tragedy that changes the world, it is necessary to return to some essential passages in the history of the twentieth century before and after 1991. A complex story, which starts from Ukraine's relationship with Lenin's Soviet power and passes through the Holodomor, the terrible famine caused by Stalin that in 1932-33 claimed more than four million victims in Ukraine. A story that continues with the Second World War and the Nazi occupation and continues with the end of the USSR and the difficulties of the Nineties, to which Ukraine responded by looking to the European Union while Putin's authoritarian turn was affirmed in Russia, based on consent to an ideology of power rooted in Russian history and shared by a ruling class formed between Soviet decline and the reaffirmation of state power. An ideology that pushes Putin to despise an opulent and corrupt West in economic and demographic decline. And that makes him think that the time has come to give Russia back its role as a great world power.

Andrea Graziosi, professor of Contemporary History at the University of Naples Federico II, has studied and taught in American, Russian and European universities. Among his publications, translated into various languages: War and revolution in Europe. 1905-1956 (2002), The USSR of Lenin and Stalin. History of the Soviet Union 1914-1945 (2007), The USSR from triumph to degradation. History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991 (2008) and Great Illusions. Ragionando sull'Italia (with Giuliano Amato, 2013) for Il Mulino; Lettere da Kharkov (ed., Einaudi 1991); The Battle for Ukrainian. A Comparative Perspective (ed., with Michael S. Flier, Harvard University Press 2017); The Great Peasant War in the USSR (Officina libraria 2022); Genocide. The Power and Problems of a Concept (edited by, with Frank E. Sysyn, McGill-Queen's University Press 2022).

Participation is free upon registration. 

Limited seats in the hall.

Info: info.aseri@unicatt.it