The Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna invites to its regular Transformative Salon on November 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM, this time with Eugene Finkel (Johns Hopkins SAIS).
Venue: Café Merkur, Florianigasse 18, 1080 Vienna.
The Salon will feature a presentation of Eugene's new Book Intent to Destroy (Basic Books, 2025), commented by Prof. Alexander Etkind (CEU). The salon is moderated by Cathrin Kahlweit (journalist).
Intent to Destroy uncovers the roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukraine is a key borderland between Russia and the West, and, following the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, dominating Ukraine became the cornerstone of Russian policy. The Russian Empire, USSR and Putin's Russia had long used violence to successfully crush Ukrainian efforts to chart a separate path. Today's violence is just a more extreme version of Russia's past efforts. But unlike in the past, the people of Ukraine have overcome their deep internal divisions, and this rise of civic Ukrainian nationalism explains successful resistance to the invasion
The talk will be followed by a public discussion.
Eugene Finkel is the Kenneth H. Keller Professor of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins SAIS. Finkel's most recent book is Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine (Basic Books, 2024). He is also the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017), and co-author of Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics and Security in Putin's Russia (Oxford University Press, 2023). His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and other journals. Finkel also published articles and op-eds in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The Spectator and other outlets.
Alexander Etkind teaches International Relations at Central European University, Vienna, and previously taught History and Russian Studies in Florence, Cambridge, and St Petersburg. His new book, Russia against Modernity, was released by Polity in May 2023.
Cathrin Kahlweit studied Russian and Politics in Eugene (USA), Tübingen, Göttingen and Moscow, then at the Hamburg School of Journalism. She has been an editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung since 1989. She worked for various years in the foreign affairs department, as a correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and in the domestic affairs department, specializing in family and social policy. After moving to Berlin, she was chief editor of the ARD talk show “Anne Will”. After returning to SZ, she was correspondent for Central Europe based in Vienna from 2012 to 2017 and correspondent for the United Kingdom based in London from 2017 to 2020. Since September 2020, she has been back in Vienna as correspondent for Central and Eastern Europe. She now works as a freelance journalist and writes for Falter, among others.
FREE ENTRY! No registration required!
This event is organized in cooperation with The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA).
