Timothy Snyder on why history matters — and how we get it wrong

In September 2025, in Kyiv, a prominent American historian Timothy Snyder received the Vasyl Stus Prize — a Ukrainian award honoring the name of Vasyl Stus, one of Ukraine’s greatest poets and dissidents of the 20th century, killed by the Soviet regime in 1985. Founded in 1989 by Yevhen Sverstiuk, another prominent Ukrainian dissident, the prize is now awarded by PEN Ukraine, the publishing house Dukh i Litera, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School. Before the award ceremony, we held a public conversation with Snyder on the good and bad ways of thinking about history. Since interpretations of history often lie at the heart of both the good and the evil that people do, this question remains vitally important. *** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine. Thinking in Dark Times seeks to find the light through — and despite — today’s darkness. *** UkraineWorld is an English-language media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine Listen to our podcasts: Explaining Ukraine: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine Thinking in Dark Times: https://li.sten.to/thinkinggg *** Special thanks to the Ukrainian History Global Initiative, PEN Ukraine, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School for helping organize this event. This episode was made possible with the support of Politeia, a Ukrainian NGO dedicated to preparing a new generation of change-makers in Ukraine. *** You can also listen to several other conversations with Timothy Snyder from previous years: On freedom: Timothy Snyder in Kyiv https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-344 Timothy Snyder in Kharkiv: A conversation about freedom https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-340 Freedom as a value and a task https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-258 Ukraine, the war, and the plurality of values https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-144 *** SUPPORT: You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld We rely on crowdfunding to continue our work. You can also support our regular trips to the frontlines, where we provide support to both soldiers (cars) and civilians (books): PayPal, [email protected] *** CONTENTS: 00:00:00 Timothy Snyder, world-known historian 00:03:04 What are the good and bad ways to use history to understand who we are? 00:08:53 How does a 'single line' view of the past, like Putin's or Trump's, take away our freedom? 00:25:18 Why recognizing the 'difference' of people in the past is a liberating act for us in the present? 00:49:55 Is the world truly living in a 'post-history' era where conflict and tragedy are safely in the past? 00:56:22 Does seeing a pattern in history mean the war is repeating, or is it a moment of new responsibility? 01:03:35 Was the US response in March 2022 a failure because American leaders were stuck in 'memory' instead of 'history'? 01:13:52 How does the power of data-driven tools force us to be careful about the human questions we ask? 01:24:21 Was the printing press as disruptive to society as social media is today?