Russian Area Studies presents lecture on events unfolding in Ukraine

Wellesley's Russian Area Studies program presents a lecture by Professor Serhii Plokhii, Director of Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute, and Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has (in)famously referred to recent events in Ukraine as “more like a pogrom than a revolution," wrote Nina Tumarkin, Professor of History and Historian of Russia, describing the event. "Protestors in Kiev —numbering in the hundreds of thousands—have taken over government buildings and are calling for the ouster of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, while his Prime Minister says the government is faced with an impending coup."

Tumarkin's current research focuses on Russian historical memory of the Soviet past. Earlier this year, she was a speaker at a Columbia University conference entitled "Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism: Entangled Histories." Tonight's lecture, Tumarkin wrote, is designed "to help us make sense of these dramatic events."

Professor Serhii Plokhii was a guest on NPR's OnPoint this morning in a conversation discussing "the East-West split" in Ukraine over economic rivalry.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, December 4 at 7:30 in the Clapp Library Lecture Room. The event is free and open to the public. Parking on campus is also free.