In this podcast, Serhii Plokhii -- Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) -- spoke with University of Cambridge students enrolled in Paper (course) SL9 (Introduction to the Language, Literature and Culture of Ukraine) and in Paper SL12 (Socialist Russia from 1917-1991). Collectively, these Cambridge students have read Plokhii's books 'The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine', 'Lost Kingdom: A History of Russian Nationalism from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin', 'Tsars and Cossacks: A Study in Iconography', and a number of his scholarly articles.

Professor Plokhii has written extensively on such topics as the origins of Slavic nations, the Cossak period in Ukraine, the history of Russian nationalism, the Cold War, the Yalta Conference, Chornobyl', and the figures of Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi and Stepan Bandera. Professor Plokhii has won numerous awards for his publications, all of which position Ukraine in the cultural framework of European history.

The conversation was recorded on 18 May 2020.