President Putin has used the occasion of the Russian invasion of southern and southeastern Ukraine to provide alternative readings of contemporary European history. These have included, both last fall and this spring, a rehabilitation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that began the Second World War in Europe. What does this convey about Russian domestic politics and about the vision of Russian foreign policy for the future of Europe? Most fundamentally, what does it mean to champion a historical alliance with fascism while simultaneously claiming to be anti-fascist? The consequences of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact run much deeper in European history than we might suppose, and its rehabilitation involves a vision of the European future that might surprise many Europeans.
Timothy Snyder is Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University and a Permanent Fellow at the IWM. He is the author of several prize-winning books including Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Stalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928-1953 (2014, edited with Ray Brandon) and Thinking the 20th Century (2013, with Tony Judt). His most recent book, Black Earth, will be published in fall 2015. On June 10, Timothy Snyder gave a lecture at the German Bundestag.
June 16, 2015, 6:00pm
Lecture I: Modern European History: A Global Framework from Eastern Experience
President Putin has used the occasion of the Russian invasion of southern and southeastern Ukraine to provide alternative readings of contemporary European history. These have included, both last fall and this spring, a rehabilitation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that began the Second World War in Europe. What does this convey about Russian domestic politics and about the vision of Russian foreign policy for the future of Europe? Most fundamentally, what does it mean to champion a historical alliance with fascism while simultaneously claiming to be anti-fascist? The consequences of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact run much deeper in European history than we might suppose, and its rehabilitation involves a vision of the European future that might surprise many Europeans.
Timothy Snyder is Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University and a Permanent Fellow at the IWM. He is the author of several prize-winning books including Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Stalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928-1953 (2014, edited with Ray Brandon) and Thinking the 20th Century (2013, with Tony Judt). His most recent book, Black Earth, will be published in fall 2015. On June 10, Timothy Snyder gave a lecture at the German Bundestag.
June 16, 2015, 6:00pm
Lecture I: Modern European History: A Global Framework from Eastern Experience
