Moderated by Serhiy Bilenky, HUSI Program Director at HURI
IN-PERSON and ONLINE via Zoom Webinar (live). Please register to attend in-person using the "REGISTER HERE" button above. To join online via Zoom, please register here.
This event is organized by HURI as part of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) Public Lecture Series.
The discussion will focus on Serhii Plokhii’s latest book, David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War. The biblical image of David and Goliath captures fittingly the nature of the war that Russia, the world’s largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighboring Ukraine, a country that—while still the largest on the European continent—is almost thirty times smaller and has only over a quarter of Russia’s population. Yet Ukraine’s stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defense against an enormously larger, more populous, and better equipped enemy, even despite its threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West dare to interfere. In this lecture, the author will reflect on Russian aggression against Ukraine and show how history can help explain Ukraine’s determination and success on the battlefield and in the public sphere.
Dr. Serhii Plokhii is the Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi Professor of History in the Department of History, Harvard University. His research interests include the intellectual, cultural, and international history of Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on Ukraine. He teaches courses and seminars on early modern and modern East European history that engage major problems in the history of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania.
Dr. Plokhii's many publications include the following monographs: The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power, and Survival (W. W. Norton, 2025); Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone (W. W. Norton, 2024); The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History (W. W. Norton, 2023); Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters (W. W. Norton, 2022); Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (W. W. Norton, 2021); Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance (Oxford University Press, 2019); Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe (Basic Books, 2018); The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (Basic Books, 2015); The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union (Basic Books, 2015); The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Yalta: The Price of Peace (Viking/Penguin, 2010; 2011); Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (University of Toronto Press, 2008); and The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
His books have won numerous awards, including the Lionel Gelber Prize (2015), Antonovych Prize (2015), the Pushkin House Book Prize (2015 and 2019), Ballie Gifford Prize (2018), the Shevchenko National Prize (2018), and the Arenberg Prize (2024). Oxford University awarded Dr. Plokhii an honorary degree in 2025.