Serhii Plokhii

Serhii Plokhii (also spelled Plokhy) is the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (HURI). A leading authority on the region, he has published extensively in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. He is the author of numerous books, including The Russo-Ukrainian War (2023), Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters (2022), The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine's Past and Present (2021), Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (2021), Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen Behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance (2019), Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe (2018), and Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation (2017).

My Events:

black and white photograph, with German Soldiers in Smolensk, during WWII

Crucibles of Power: Smolensk Under Stalinist and Nazi Rule

Wednesday, September 3, 2025
4:30 to 6pm EDT

In person

Join us for a talk about the Smolensk Region during the 1930s–40s, where residents navigated life under both Stalinist and Nazi brutal rule.

Recording Available

Michael David-Fox

Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University

Serhii Plokhii

Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History / Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute , Harvard University

Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Contemporary Crimean Tatar Poetry and Fiction

Tuesday, April 22, 2025
12:30 to 2pm EDT

Online

This event introduces the first English-language anthology of contemporary Crimean Tatar poetry and prose. The volume encapsulates the story of indigenous resistance to injustice, violence, humiliation, and eradication as chronicled by those who continue to endure it.

Recording Available

Alim Aliev

Founder, Crimean Fig Literary Project; Member, PEN Ukraine

Anastasia Levkova

Co-founder, Crimean Fig Literary Project; Member, PEN Ukraine

Rory Finnin

Associate Professor of Ukrainian Studies, University of Cambridge

Serhii Plokhii

Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History / Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute , Harvard University

Askold Melnyczuk

Founder of Arrowsmith Press; Professor of English, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Preceptor in Ukrainian, Harvard University

Red background with red text reading, "To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power"

Book Talk: 'To Run the World' — Soviet Foreign Policy After 1945

Wednesday, March 12, 2025
12:30 to 2pm EDT

In person

Sergey Radchenko's book provides a lengthy analysis of the evolution of Soviet foreign policy after 1945.

Recording Available

Sergey Radchenko

Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Serhii Plokhii

Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History / Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute , Harvard University

Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center