What happened in this episode?
On this episode of Trigonometry, hosts Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster interviewed renowned historian Antony Beevor for a deep examination of Russian history and national character, particularly focused on understanding why Russia behaves as it does today under Putin. Beevor, author of a new book on Rasputin, argued that Russia's patterns of conspicuous cruelty in warfare trace back to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and were codified while Europe moved through the Enlightenment. The conversation centered on how formative traumas—the Time of Troubles, the Russian Civil War with its 10 million casualties, and weak leadership under Tsar Nicholas II—created a Russian preference for strong autocratic leaders at almost any cost. Beevor detailed how Nicholas II's weakness, combined with Empress Alexandra's obsession with Rasputin due to their hemophiliac son Alexei, destroyed the monarchy's legitimacy and precipitated the 1917 revolution. He revealed disturbing continuities between historical Russian brutality toward soldiers and current practices in Ukraine, including strapping landmines to conscripts and using African recruits as suicide bombers. Beevor warned the war's aftermath will devastate Russian society as traumatized, brutalized veterans return home. On geopolitics, he assessed that Putin fears China despite needing the alliance, as Chinese demographic takeover of Russia's Far East accelerates. The historian predicted bitterness from the Ukraine war will poison Russia-West relations for generations and controversially suggested that preventing mass immigration may become armies' primary future role given climate disasters and conflicts driving displacement.
