Sir Antony Beevor
speaker
363 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 6 Jun
Sir Antony Beevor’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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There is a very important debate of why Russia is the way that it is, why it is so different, if you like, to Western Europe.
Some will say that it goes back to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.
Russia has to be 200 years behind Western Europe.
To protect Russian tradition, to protect Russian culture, this time lag was essential.
There has always been this case whereby the attitude of meet the cannon, I mean the whole notion, the Russian steamroller, et cetera, the idea that simply out of sheer weight of numbers they can crush any enemy.
But the real problem is that they have often treated their own people as badly as the enemy.
This is a form of inhumanity, which obviously in the West we find incomprehensible.
are the way they are today and i think as someone who comes from russia i think a lot of history is really valuable for understanding that so can you just take us through the history of russia starting at the very beginning well i wouldn't have said that i was a sufficient russian expert on the earlier periods at all to be able to do that but there is a very important debate of why russia is that he is the way that it is why it is so different if you like to western
And even within Russia itself, one sees this tremendous split between the Western Slavophil traditions, this great mixture of Europe and Asia.
And as a result, one needs to understand some of these contradictions.
They'll never necessarily be resolved.
Many argue that in the case of Russia, that the whole idea of conspicuous cruelty as a necessary weapon of war came from the Mongol invasions, and there may well be a lot of truth in that.
Certainly the idea of encirclement and some of the element of Russian paranoia, I think, came from that particular era.
Well, there's been a considerable debate, obviously, amongst historians about where the Russian method of warfare has originated.
Some will say that it goes back to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, with the sweeping in from the Shchep, coming from the Far East, and the way that the original Rus settlements were then attacked.
And in many ways, this was the start
of a continual warfare which lasted for a long time.
The Mongols certainly were the ones who believed that a fire and sword, laying waste, mass rape was an element, a natural element of warfare.
And this actually became almost a central element in the Russian view of warfare, of conspicuous cruelty, I think one can call it.
And the interesting thing is, of course, Europe was just as bad in the 17th century.
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