History, subverted by Putin, could help free Russia from its flawed mindset
BY SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
If ever there was a moment that revealed that you can have too much history, it is this one. When Vladimir Putin wrote his 2021 essay on the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, based on his distorted version of history, and then deployed it to justify his invasion of sovereign Ukraine, it demonstrated how often history is used to control the present.
Putin's “history” was soon backed up by bombing, bullets and barbarism. But what is more important is how people wish to live now. And the Ukrainians have demonstrated their own wishes with incredible courage.
That is one lesson for history-lovers this year. Another is that history is powerful, but it has to be accurate: the historian's mission must be to fight for that. Putin's version is so selective and narrow as to be meaningless – but that mistake can also apply to other histories. History must always be a quest for truth without the diktats of ideology. Without perspective, it can be futile. We rightly study the imperialism of European empires, yet few scholars of imperialism were studying a ferocious dictator about to launch an imperialist war in Europe today.
The 2022 invasion shows how the Russians themselves are prisoners of their history and of their imperial self-image and armed mission. The Russian empire was created by Peter the Great and, whether ruled by tsars, general-secretaries or presidents, it has yet to find another identity and narrative.
The study
