Author: Serhii Plokhy | Journal of Democracy

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. This essay is based on the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, delivered on 11 December 2024 at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C. The lecture draws in turn on the author’s book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History (2023).

April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2

David vs. Goliath: Defeating Russian Autocracy

Serhii Plokhy

Ukraine versus Russia is a modern David versus Goliath conflict that matters not only for the future of Ukraine, but for that of democracy itself.