The Burning Archive

How do we make sense of the war in Ukraine in a big-picture historical perspective? There have been many news stories, many podcasts and many channels looking at the unfolding events in Ukraine from day to day. In this podcast, however, Jeff Rich steps back from the daily news cycle, and sets out six common historical narratives about the war in Ukraine.

By seeing the truth and errors in all these narratives we are more likely to find our way back to the path of diplomacy and dialogue, and to live at peace with all the cultures that enrich this world.

Leave a comment below or vote in the poll - Are there any of these narratives that you have changed your mind on as a result of this video?

The six narratives are:

Key histories, videos and texts referred to in the discussion (with links to where you can view or buy) are

Serhi Plokhy, Lost Kingdom A History of Russian Nationalism from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin (2017) (https://amzn.to/3XlcqE3), The Gates of Europe: a History of Ukraine (2016) (https://amzn.to/3IWgjLf)

Nikolai Petro The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy Can Teach Us about Conflict Resolution (2022) https://amzn.to/3HcbSL3

Glenn Diesen (@GDiesen1) @theduran discussion with Nikolai Petro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2IdIbCREuk

Niall Ferguson on Cold War Two https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-10-23/cold-war-2-with-china-and-russia-is-becoming-ww3-niall-ferguson and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kJrnLln2Ug

Joint Article of Russian and Chinese Ambassadors to United States on Democracy http://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/dshd/202111/t20211127_10454275.htm (Also published in National interest, note Qin Gang is now Foreign Minister of China)

President Vladimir Putin (Russia), New Year Address to Nation 2023, is an example of the Anti-Russia War narrative  (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70315)

Here Putin says, ‘For years, Western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions, including to help resolve the serious conflict in Donbass. …The West lied to us about peace while preparing for aggression, and today, they no longer hesitate to openly admit it and to cynically use Ukraine and its people as a means to weaken and divide Russia.’

Dominic Lieven on Putin’s nostalgia for empire and the status of the soliviki Short Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8L-BytAlw

Full discussion https://youtu.be/QkXZYqWJX6k

Please subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel @theburningarchive for more history, culture and geopolitics, and some reviews of the best history books.

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021 - https://amzn.to/3Bsq2EI.

You can check out all my content here - https://linktr.ee/burningarchive.

#Russia #Ukraine #history  #geopolitics #war #NATO #narrative

What will the Russia-Ukraine-NATO War be known as in the history books? How do we make sense of this event, and how do we avoid losing our heads by getting sucked into the contending narratives of the war.

"If there is just one thing I would ask all listeners to do it is to reflect on the stories, the histories of this conflict in Ukraine that you are being told and you are telling yourself, and try to find the truth in at least one alternative history. Only that way can we find our way back to dialogue and diplomacy. Only that way can we face the reality of this war."

This video/podcast places the Ukraine conflict in a broader historical context. Is this the start of World War II, or are there other models and stories from history that provide a better framework to compare with events of today? And how can we as ordinary citizens deal with the contending narratives about the war and its history?

While there are many channels that cover the daily news and updates on the war in Ukraine, this podcast/channel takes a step back and sets out a clear narrative of the war in Ukraine that involves Ukraine, Russia and NATO, principally the USA.

This episode is the third in a three-part playlist reviewing the war in Ukraine in 2022. It is being released in three instalments over the next five days. Parts 2 and 3 will discuss 12 alternative narratives or histories of the war and its links to the emerging multipolar world.

The video is also available as a podcast on Spotify, Apple and other platforms.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel @theburningarchive for more history, culture and geopolitics, and some reviews of the best history books.

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021 - https://amzn.to/3Bsq2EI.

You can check out all my content here - https://linktr.ee/burningarchive.

Leave me a comment below. What narratives about the Russia-Ukraine War have cast a spell on you?

You can also listen to this video as an audio podcast when on the move on Spotify or your preferred podcast player.

#Russia #Ukraine #history #geopolitics #war

This podcast asks who is winning the war in Ukraine - Ruussia, NATO or Ukraine? It assesses four dimensions of the conflict - military war, economic war, information war and diplomatic struggle. How are these conflicts shaping the emerging multipolar world order?

While there are many channels that cover the daily news and updates on the war in Ukraine, this video takes a step back and sets out a clear narrative of the war in Ukraine that involves Ukraine, Russia and NATO, principally the USA.

The podcast is the second in a three-part series reviewing the war in Ukraine in 2022.

The third podcast will place the conflict in a broader historical context. Is this the start of World War II, or are there other models and stories from history that provide a better framework to compare with events of today. This video will be released on 16 January 2022.

Please subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel @theburningarchive for more history, culture and geopolitics, and some reviews of the best history books.

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021 - https://amzn.to/3Bsq2EI.

You can check out all my content here - https://linktr.ee/burningarchive.

#Russia #Ukraine #history #2022 #geopolitics

How do we make sense of the events leading up to the war in Ukraine, and throughout the year of 2022? There have been many news stories, many podcasts and many channels looking at the unfolding events in Ukraine from day to day, In this podcast, however, Jeff Rich steps back from the daily news cycle, and sets out a clear narrative to the whole war, from its beginnings in the internal conflicts in Ukraine in 2014 to the latest missile attacks on Ukraine in l;ate December 2022.

It is the first in a three-part series reviewing the war in Ukraine in 2022, and linking that review to my series on the Black Legend of Russian History.

The second part will assess who is winning the war against four dimensions of the conflict - military war, economic war, information war and diplomatic struggle. How are these conflicts shaping the emerging multipolar world order? This video will be released on 9 January 2022.

The third part will place the conflict in a broader historical context. Is this the start of World War II, or are there other models and stories from history that provide a better framework to compare with events of today. This video will be released on 16 January 2022.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel @theburningarchive for more history, culture and geopolitics, and some reviews of the best history books.

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021 - https://amzn.to/3Bsq2EI.

You can check out all my content here - https://linktr.ee/burningarchive.

#Russia #Ukraine #history #2022 #geopolitics

What are the origin stories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus? They all make a claim on the legacy of Kievan Rus, the loose grouping of warring principalities and many ethnic groups that formed in the territory between Novgorod and Kiev between 900 and 1200. This story has often been told for nationalist myths, but its more complex and layered story - still relevant to the Russia-NATO-Ukraine War today - is that all political cultures are plural. Along the way you will also hear a fragment from the 'Lay of Igor's Campaign' - the epic Russian medieval poem whose sole surviving copy was not saved from the burning archive caused by Napoleaon's invasion of Moscow.

This episode is the 11th in my series on the Black Legend of Russian History. The next and final episode in the series, coming after Christmas, will be a wrap up of the most recent episode in Russian history - the war in 2022.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel @theburningarchive

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021

For 250 years from the 1220's Russia and Ukraine were both controlled by the Mongol Empire, the successors to Genghis Khan, the Golden Horde. Traditionally, this period has been described by the term coined by nationalist historians, the Mongol or Tatar Yoke. But, in truth, this period did not subject Russia to a benighted warrior empire. It connected Russia to the greatest Eurasian power of the time. And it led to a creative, prosperous, civilised time of successful institution-building. The Mongol Yoke is now seen as the period of the Mongol Exchange - perhaps a precursor to the growing Eurasian cooperation of today.

The story of how the Horde changed the world, and was decisive for the development of a multi-ethnic Russian empire centred on Muscovy (Moscow) is told in Marie Favereau, The Horde: how the Mongols Changed the World (2021). It is well worth a read, and you can buy at the Amazon affiliate link.

This episode is the 10th in my series on the Black Legend of Russian History.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel @theburningarchive 

You can buy my new book From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2021

Ivan the Terrible is a key figure in Russian history. To understand him you need to separate man and myth. To strip the myths away, you need to see Ivan not as an evil monster, but rather as an erratic Renaissance Eurasian prince. In this 9th episode in the ‘Black Legend of Russian History’ series, and part two of the extended podcast on Ivan IV, the Burning Archive discusses the puzzles of Ivan IV’s power, violence, mind, repentance, death and legacy.

Full details of further reading on Ivan IV are at https://theburningarchive.com.

I am also now releasing video versions on the podcast on my YouTube channel @theburningarchive. You can also see other stories of the multipolar world there.

You can buy my newly released book, From the Burning Archive at Amazon and other online retailers. It includes essays on Ivan IV and many other intriguing topics in history, culture and society.

Ivan the Terrible is a key figure in Russian history. To understand him you need to separate man and myth, and there are many myths because all we know about Ivan is based on very limited evidence. And to strip the myths away you need to see Ivan not as an evil monster, but rather as an erratic Renaissance Eurasian prince. In this 8th episode in the 'Black Legend of Russian History' series, the myths about Ivan are outlined, and then the stranger stories of his life are told.

More details are available at theburningarchive.com

You can buy my newly released book, From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022 at Amazon here and other retailers.

In the early 1600's Russia suffered a traumatic civil war, political instability and social chaos. This period is known as the Time of Troubles. It left a mark on Russian political institutions and historical culture. But most of all it featured remarkable characters - the self-made Tsar, Boris Godunov; his sister, the first female ruler of Russia, Irina Godunova; and, most enigmatically of all, the claimant to the throne, known to history as False Dmitri. This story can only be fully understood, however, by investigating two murder mysteries, both involving the sons of Ivan the Terrible.

In preparing this episode, I used Chester Dunning, Russia's First Civil War: the Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty, and Mark B. Smith The Russia Anxiety, and how history can resolve it. They are brilliant books, do check them out.

Music - brief excerpts from Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov, Vienna Philharmonic

You can find out more about all my content here. 

Check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel @theburningarchive.

Follow me on twitter @ArchiveBurning

Peter the Great and Catherine the Great dominated Russia's 18th century. The remarkable transformations of Russian government, society, empire and culture that they led are symbolised in the astonishing statue of the Bronze Horseman in St Petersburg. The statue was a gift from Catherine II to Peter I, and it represents the power, energy and military prowess with which Peter transformed the Russian state. But it also represents the genius with which Catherine the Great presided over the Russian Enlightenment. As part of the continuing series of telling Russian History backwards and debunking the 'Black Legend of Russian History, Jeff Rich tells the tale of Russia's 18th century when there was one great Emperor and four remarkable Empresses.

The music at the start and end of the show is from The Story of Tsarevich Fevey, was set to music by Vasily Pashkevich (court composer for Peter III, Catherine the Great's husband), courtesy of YouTube. Catherine the Great composed the libretti. 

I read from Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman" from The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry (2015), and Dominic Lieven, In the Shadow of the Gods: the Emperor in World History (2022).

You can explore all of Jeff Rich's work at https://linktr.ee/burningarchive.