THE STATUE OF KHMELNYTSKY AND THE ORIGINS OF IMPERIAL DOMINATION Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. John Batchelor and Professor Eugene Finkel discuss the 1888 statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv, originally a project of Russian nationalists who envision

THE STATUE OF KHMELNYTSKY AND THE ORIGINS OF IMPERIAL DOMINATION Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. John Batchelor and Professor Eugene Finkel discuss the 1888 statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv, originally a project of Russian nationalists who envisioned a Ukraine stripped of Jews, Poles, and Westerninfluence. Finkel explains Khmelnytsky's 17th-century rebellion against Poland and his subsequent alliance with Moscow, which Russians interpret as unification but Ukrainians view as a pragmatic move for statehood. The conversation explores the 1783 imperial project under Catherine the Great, comparing the colonization of "New Russia" and the Black Sea coast to American colonial expansion, aiming to force Russian identity onto a diverse population. NUMBER 1
SOVIET KYIV