"Putin's misreading of history is a major contributing factor in how this war has progressed"

As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, with losses mounting ever higher on both sides, Matt Elton speaks to SERHII PLOKHY about his new book exploring the conflict’s historical origins and their consequences

- Matt Elton

Your book charts the current war, and the ways in which it's informed by the past. How did the origin stories Russia tells about itself feed into this conflict?

History is written all over this war, starting with the way it was justified by Russian president, Vladimir Putin. In summer 2021, he published his article ‘On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’, pushing an argument that goes way back to the Kyivan Rus’ [the Slavic state that dominated north-eastern Europe from the 10th century, with its capital in Kyiv, and from which both Russia and Ukraine claim descent]. So when I was writing my book, it was important for me to start with the origin myth that links Russia to Kyiv.

Much of the current conflict, and wider Russian-Ukrainian relations, is based on associated mythology. That’s important not just because it shows Putin’s misuse of history, but also because it speaks to the concerns that arose in the 20th century with the disintegration of the Russian empire, and ideas that Putin is now trying to bring back.

Similarly, can we pinpoint the birth of the Ukrainian national project, which is also crucial to understanding this conflict?

Ukrainians also claim the Kievan Rus’ as the beginning of their history – after all, the capital of Ukraine today is Kyiv. But the modern Ukrainian national project comes from roughly the same period as those of most of its neighbours, the 19th century – the idea of Ukraine not as part of the Russian empire but as a key member of the Slavic Federation of Nations. That was the time when language, culture, history and politics all came together in the minds of thinkers, historians and people who collect folklore.