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Thank you so much for producing the lecture/podcast series and providing these lecture notes as well! I am up to lecture 6 and just ordered Plokhy's book so I can follow along with the readings. I had started reading the recently published "Russia: Myths and Realities" by Rodric Braithwaite and was wondering if there were any current books written about Ukraine when I discovered your lecture series. I find it absolutely astonishing that there are almost no semester long university courses (besides your own) that cover the history of Ukraine. Despite my study of Russian and Eastern European Jewish history and literature back in my University days, I am ashamed to say that I know almost nothing about Ukraine, aside from current events. Thanks again for bringing light to this important subject!

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Thank you so much Dr. Snyder for ALL you are doing! Goodness! Of course you are NOT behind! You are engaged in powerful ways in behalf of Ukraine, Ukrainians, and actually the entire world. I so appreciated your statement at the UN Security Council meeting on "russophobia" especially in light of the two speakers who came before you! I listened to almost the entire session. I was deeply impressed by many around the table who are very aware of what the terrorist state is doing and that they oppose it and support Ukraine. Do you have any idea whether or if the UNSC can / will/ is allowed to suspend a member (as suspect as their membership actually has become since 1991) for aggression that breaks all manner of international law as well as the UN Charter, which this nation is supposed to have agreed to support? I foresee terrible things if russia is allowed to be chair of the SC in the usual rotation. How can this injustice be halted?

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Yeah, lack of knowledge of the existence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and proclamation that such a thing never existed almost aborted at the outset what became a 27 year LTR until she sailed west to the unknown land beyond the sunset last month. But I was an A student in Lithuanian history by then, you can bet. :-)

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The English linguist Peter Trudgill has an interesting short article on the Sorbian language. He describes a pocket of speakers of this Slavic language who were "left behind" in Germany during the to-ing and fro-ing of the border between areas of Germanic-language speakers and areas of Slavic-language speakers.

According to Trudgill, at their point of furthest expansion, Slavic dialects were spoken as far west as the Lüneberg Heath in northern Germany; then later, Germanic dialects were spoken as far east as Lithuania. These moving language boundaries over a period of time covered a distance of at least 600 miles.

Peter Trudgill, The story of Germany's Slavic speaking communities, New European, 26 September, 2019

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Thanking you going to listen to again tomorrow

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