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Achala Moulik's The Thousand Years War: Russia and the West helps understand the raging conflict in Ukraine

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

Nothing exists in isolation, more so in history. A case in point is the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict—it has its roots not only in recent developments but also in the past.

Pushkin Medal recipient Achala Moulik puts the Russian perspective in focus, placing contemporary events in the backdrop of a west-Russia conflict over 10 centuries. Hence the title of her book—The Thousand Years War: Russia and the West. If anything, the book helps understand the raging conflict in Ukraine.

Russians have had a unique and troubled relationship with the west. They are Europeans and Eurasians at the same time, which has led to a civilisational conflict. Parallelly, there was the clash between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, as also the political-economic contradictions between capitalism and communism.