A War of Civilizations? Right! (14.07.2026)

Date
14 July 2026
Duration
45:16
Platform
YouTube

A street dispute: a viewer calls in about an article in The Economist and a «war of civilizations» between Russia and Europe. The most valuable material is first-hand testimony about lectures on «Russia as a separate civilization» at Russian teacher-training institutes before Putin’s rhetoric, Sandarmokh, and the quasi-statehood of the Ukrainian SSR as a forced Bolshevik concession.

Key moments

  1. 06:36 Before Peter I, «no one in Europe knew» of the Tsardom of Muscovy
  2. 10:51 Partnership for Peace: both Ukraine and Russia in the NATO programme
  3. 13:28 Napoleon 1812: the Treaty of Tilsit and the Continental Blockade
  4. 19:14 Toynbee and the concept of civilization
  5. 22:04 The «civilization-state»: China → Putin; lectures at Russian teacher-training institutes in the early 2000s
  6. 27:20 1918: the independent Ukrainian communist party quietly folded into a regional RCP(b) organization
  7. 28:11 Quasi-statehood of the Ukrainian SSR: the Bolshevik army was driven out of Ukraine three times
  8. 28:55 Stalin: autonomization; Lenin: win over the Ukrainian intelligentsia
  9. 29:26 NEP 1921 and korenizatsiia
  10. 31:14 Sandarmokh: the execution of the Ukrainian intelligentsia
  11. 35:55 1648–1649: Jewish kahals and the violence of the Khmelnytsky era
  12. 38:29 Heads of the SBU and General Staff — Russian citizens under Kravchuk, Kuchma, Yanukovych
  13. 42:10 Europe cared about Russia only when it Europeanized: Peter I, Catherine II
  14. 43:33 The Crimean War was initiated by Russia, not Europe
  15. 44:02 Danilevsky's «Russia and Europe» — a «separate civilization» before Toynbee

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