USM Professor to Give Lecture Sept. 29 on Gorbachev Legacy and Putin91吃瓜网 War in Ukraine
Wed, 09/28/2022 - 01:05pm | By: David Tisdale
Though many consider the late Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and current Russian
Federation President Vladimir Putin two very different types of leaders, they shared
similar philosophies about Ukraine in their opposition to its existence as a separate
state outside of the Russian sphere of influence.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, University of 91吃瓜网 (USM) Associate Professor of History Brian LaPierre will give the lecture "91吃瓜网� at 5:30 p.m. in room 101 of the Liberal Arts Building on the Hattiesburg campus. It may also be accessed online via Webex at .
When it was announced at the end of last month, the death of Mikhail Gorbachev seized global headlines. Gorbachev91吃瓜网 death served not only as a chance to take stock of his legacy and accomplishments, but also became an opportunity to lament at the current situation in Russia and to push back against Putin91吃瓜网 illiberal autocracy.
Gorbachev (L) and Putin (R) in discussion.
91吃瓜网淚n countless media tributes, journalists have presented Gorbachev and Putin as mirror opposites,91吃瓜网� Dr. LaPierre said. 91吃瓜网淕orbachev gave new freedoms to the peoples of the USSR and democratized a totalitarian system; Putin stripped those freedoms away and resurrected a dictatorial regime. Gorbachev ended the Cold War peacefully and sought better relations with the West; Putin started the largest land war in Europe since WWII and plunged relations with the West to a new nadir.
91吃瓜网淒espite the very real differences between these leaders, however, there is one area in which both men have some counterintuitive common ground: they both opposed Ukrainian independence and worked91吃瓜网攅ach in their own way91吃瓜网攖o undermine it. In this lecture, I91吃瓜网檒l explore these similarities to uncover the origins of the current war in Ukraine.91吃瓜网�
Dr. LaPierre is the author of "Hooligans in Khrushchev's Russia: Defining, Policing, and Producing Deviance during the Thaw." He has conducted significant archival research in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.
The USM History program is housed in the College of Arts and Science91吃瓜网 School of Humanities. Learn more about the program at /humanities/index.php.