How appropriate that your first copy of "On Freedom" went to Zelensky! I second Angela's comment, "Thank you for all you do." Your voice is one of my lifelines in this treacherous time.
Snyder's voice has also been one of my lifelines for several years, a source of clear thinking coupled with knowledge of history. This particular truth struck me BIG time: "Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us."
Saw Tim's speech a few nights ago in NYC at the Museum - was lucky to sit in 2nd row in center to see & feel his wisdom & passion. The world needs to listen to him / take action - to begin to get us out of this intense quagmire we are in.
Thank you for all you do. Your writing is a lifeline for many of us. I was looking forward to listening to you speak at Yale. The registration is full, which means many people are listening. Hope to see you speak sometime because I would love to listen.
Hi, Stephen, I watched this conference live via Zoom, and enjoyed it. Yaroslav Hrysak is the one sitting to Serhii Plokhy's left, with the glasses and unruly white hair. That man is fantastic; he teaches at the Ukrainian Catholic University in L'viv. I read the English translation of his "Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation" (2023) earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the chapter on the Ukrainian language (pp.375-97), which answered many of the questions I had during Prof. Snyder's lecture series in 2022. It's just a bare minimum, I know, but is a good foundation. I also have the English translation of his "Ivan Franko and His Community" (2018) but I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet. When I started reading history I made the stupid mistake of reading books and papers in the wrong order, and have been trying to correct that (That happens when you're self-taught; you don't have anyone to guide you). All history is complicated, but Ukrainian history seems, at least to me anyway, unusually so. I found it terribly confusing at first; the years c.1917-22 are ridiculously complex. Then there's the fact that if you're a Westerner, you have to readjust your thinking, which is no small matter, in order to internalize it. Knowing the facts isn't the same as knowing the facts and understanding, that is, internalizing, them. The hard work is now, *finally*, paying off.
I couldn't agree more! That's a reason why I have been sticking to the books Snyder recommends. I feel hopeless about unraveling the intricate details of Ukraine's history, so will have to be content in knowing ten times as much as Putin does.
I can't tell you how relieved I am to know this. I kept wondering if it was a stupidity problem on my part, or if other Westerners have the same difficulties with Ukrainian history that I do. Part of it, as I mentioned before, is that if you're a Westerner it takes a lot of effort to readjust your thinking. But in addition to that, because of where Ukraine is, there are so many different influences coming from different directions, including from western Europe. But it's not just west-east; more importantly, it's also north-south, the latter especially during the years after 476, when the Roman Empire continued in the east; the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire; and continuing after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. But even during the Roman Empire, the orientation was N-S. Serhii Plokhy writes about the north-south orientation in "The Gates of Europe." And see especially Larry Wolff, "Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment" (1994). Westerners' east-west way of thinking is actually pretty recent.
Spiritual teaching refers to the "Four directions": North, South, East, West.
Linking these to the Seasons of the Year, the direction North–South is that of polar opposites: Midsummer S–Midwinter N. The direction East–West finds the Point of Balance between the extremes, thus, Spring–Autumn, where we find the Equinoxes.
These directions are also linked to the Hours of the Day: here due North is the Midnight Hour, due South Midday. Due East is Dawn, due West dusk. As someone famous once said, "Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun".
Ultimately, these directions emanate from the Zodiac, which frames the entry point to this physical world of ours. On the Zodiac today, due North is occupied by the sign of Gemini, the Twins; due South lies Sagittarius, the Archer. To the West we find Virgo, the Virgin, and to the East Pisces, the Fishes.
It is the EAST, not the North, which always has denoted the SPIRITUAL BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. The point on the zodiac where the SUN rises at DAWN on the DAY of the SPRING EQUINOX is called THE SIGN OF THE TIMES.
Today, PISCES THE FISHES gives us what folklore also calls the SIGN OF THE TIMES. Folklore is the people's memory of spiritual teachings given out by prophets and priests and pastors and, before that, directly by initiates. Thus it is no accident that our culture is imbued with symbols and legends and myths and allegories and parables and sayings of Christ the Fish and his Virgin Mother.
You can check exactly where, in the sign of Pisces, the equinox point lies today, by consulting any astronomical reference, since the spiritual accords harmoniously with the physical senses. "As above, so below", as the well-known saying goes. Look at a modern map of the heavens, and you will see that this point lies close to the cluster of stars traditionally drawn as the tail of the Second Pisces Fish, which points along the zodiac towards the sign of Aquarius.
Now, you may safely ignore all popular newspaper astrology which pretends "signs" are something mystically different from our zodiacal "constellations". This popular astrology puts the "Sign of the Times" always at the beginning of the zodiacal constellation of Aries the Ram, which is the archetypal beginning of the zodiac. This thereby misleads people about where we are now in real this-physical-world time, and so it makes money out of ignorance. This unfortunate circumstance is merely a result of an inability to understand a phenomenon called the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES (plus an over-enthusiastic desire by priests to emphasise the newness of the Christ Coming by trying to cancel out everything that came before, which often masked an unacknowledged desire to hold onto a very Unchristian Power Over Others at all costs; thus in trying to convey how, truly, Time Stood Still with the coming of Christ 2000 years ago, they ended plunging the people into Untruths).
Precession of the Equinoxes simply means that, because of a slight discrepancy between earthly and solar rhythms, the Vernal Point of the Spring Equinox moves very gradually backwards through the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces to Aquarius for example, at the rate of 1° every 72 years. This moving point completes a circuit of the whole zodiac every 25,920 years. This cycle is what we know as the Platonic Year. Here, ancient initiate teaching from Plato survives into the historical record to help us in our understanding today.
So, Rose, to bring this extended excursus back to your immediate post, and link deep spiritual teaching to modern historical and sociopolitical research:
"… because of where Ukraine is, there are so many different influences coming from different directions, including from western Europe. But it's not just west-east; more importantly, it's also north-south, the latter especially during the years after 476, when the Roman Empire continued in the east; the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire; and continuing after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. But even during the Roman Empire, the orientation was N-S. Serhii Plokhy writes about the north-south orientation in "The Gates of Europe." And see especially Larry Wolff, "Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment" (1994). Westerners' east-west way of thinking is actually pretty recent ..."
No. The older, spiritual pair of directions is East-West. These always set the Sign of the Times. This understanding persisted officially in England, for example, until very recent centuries. Here, the equinoctial Spiritual Year was distinguished from the solstitial Secular Year. The Secular Year began at the Winter Solstice. It was administrative and economic. This was what the Romans brought us. It has become mixed up with their preceding Saturnalia festival. But our times, deeply understood, are not the times of the Twins, nor of the Archer. We are in the times of the Fishes and the Virgin.
Stay well, and thanks for yet another valuable link in your post. I will follow that up.
Not that I know of. I've usually bought the books he's recommended scattered throughout the years--the ones he mentions in talks/lectures, as well as some that are cited in his books/papers .
Just remembered that there are also the notes he handed out to his The Making of Modern Ukraine course in 2022, all of which contain lists of required reading and which he posted on his Substack. Then there are the occasional bibliographies that he's made available on his Substack posts.
My link to Ukrainian mentality is a history of Poland, “God’s Playground” by Norman Davies. What I read there fits in totally with the Ukrainians of today.
“'You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.' That was Zelenskyi’s own radical formulation two years ago, when we were talking about the books and the teachers that had mattered to us.” Yes, you have been one of the greatest influences in my life not only because of your books and public talks, but because you have inspired me to read more history, so that all of the authors of the books and papers I've read over the last 4½+ years are now thinking through me. And for that I am full of gratitude.
"One is what I think of as the Zelens’kyi paradox: a free person can sometimes only do one thing. If we think of freedom as just our momentary impulses, then we can always try to run. But if we think of freedom as the state in which we can make our own moral choices and thereby create our own character, we might reach a point where, given who we have chosen to become, we have only one real choice. That was how Zelens’kyi described his decision to stay in Kyiv: as not really a decision, but as the only thing he could have done and still remained true to himself. It was not only about defending freedom, although of course it was, but about remaining a free person."
This concept often seems a continuous process of discovery and even rediscovery....
Viktor Frankle said "the most basic human freedom, when all other choices are gone, is the ability to choose our own attitude". I suspect Zelens'kyi made such a choice just before saying "I need ammunition, not a ride", and in so saying changed not only his attitude about the Russian invasion, but also that of his country and the world as well.
My copy of "On Freedom" arrived two days ago and I'm reading it...slowly. I regret not having had any Philosophy courses in university or read more extensively on this discipline since then. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to have this book; I think it's quite different in style and substance from most of Professor Snyder's other works, although I'm reminded of the book he co-wrote with Tony Judt "Thinking the Twentieth Century". I'm looking forward to having my copy autographed next month in Chicago; I'm taking my son to the University Club for the talk and reception and I expect I'll buy another copy of "On Freedom" for my son.
Thank you Dr. Snyder. "Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us." This is the best definition of Amendment 1 I have ever read, And it fits perfectly with my own thought about our first Amendment. The freedom of speech clause is followed immediately by the right to peaceably assemble, Nothing in this amendment suggests the right to spread lies, threats, or insults. It's time the current anti-Constitutional six and the party of trump learned that lesson.
Thank you also for your courteous meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he is a man of courage.
I will say it again - This book and the work it required of you has changed the language with which you speak. My first TS book was, On Tyranny. It was a cheap book, and I bought ten or fifteen and sent them out to friends. It was a book of histories and facts that told our future. But this book, On Freedom, was different from the others. I'm not sure if it was a writing tactic or the product of a revelation. But it is without question written/spoken in a different language. There is poetry in your voice now that goes beyond facts and reason. I hope when you go back and read passages from this book that you are sometimes surprised with a sense of wonder. “You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.” That line is a poetic line that requires me to think. It is a different language than that of facts and figures. It is the only language capable of guiding us out of our present chaos and darkness. Whether a tactic or revelation, I thank you!
Thank you, Prof Snyder. This is a fascinating and beautiful account.
A profoundly grounding lived demonstration of the choice to sincere and optimistic self-determination within a conscious personal devotion to mutual human capacity to choose, to act, to discover personal responsibility and personal deliverance from ignorance and self-centeredness in cooperating with others is presented here.
It is a reminder, as sincere a reminder as the choices and actions of Rosa Parks, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for examples, of the individual capacity for rendering useful whatever free choice one has and rendering that usefulness in a mutually respectful and mutually chosen way.
The two assertions that President Zelens’kyi made and which you share with us are astonishing:
“everything is in Shakespeare”
and
“You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.”
The opportunity is who does one chose to be, what chosen action in pursuit of what interest(s)
befit the actor one wants oneself to remember and others to witness?. As you note, "if we think of freedom as the state in which we can make our own moral choices and thereby create our own character, we might reach a point where, given who we have chosen to become, we have only one real choice. That was how Zelens’kyi described his decision to stay in Kyiv: as not really a decision, but as the only thing he could have done and still remained true to himself. It was not only about defending freedom, although of course it was, but about remaining a free person."
I am grateful that you have shared these experiences.
My dream is that we all survive for enough years to watch an online event, "Volodymyr Zelensky and Timothy Snyder discuss Shakespeare".
How appropriate that your first copy of "On Freedom" went to Zelensky! I second Angela's comment, "Thank you for all you do." Your voice is one of my lifelines in this treacherous time.
Snyder's voice has also been one of my lifelines for several years, a source of clear thinking coupled with knowledge of history. This particular truth struck me BIG time: "Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us."
Saw Tim's speech a few nights ago in NYC at the Museum - was lucky to sit in 2nd row in center to see & feel his wisdom & passion. The world needs to listen to him / take action - to begin to get us out of this intense quagmire we are in.
Thank you for all you do. Your writing is a lifeline for many of us. I was looking forward to listening to you speak at Yale. The registration is full, which means many people are listening. Hope to see you speak sometime because I would love to listen.
Here you go
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RXUNwMKlLEU
Hi, Stephen, I watched this conference live via Zoom, and enjoyed it. Yaroslav Hrysak is the one sitting to Serhii Plokhy's left, with the glasses and unruly white hair. That man is fantastic; he teaches at the Ukrainian Catholic University in L'viv. I read the English translation of his "Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation" (2023) earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the chapter on the Ukrainian language (pp.375-97), which answered many of the questions I had during Prof. Snyder's lecture series in 2022. It's just a bare minimum, I know, but is a good foundation. I also have the English translation of his "Ivan Franko and His Community" (2018) but I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet. When I started reading history I made the stupid mistake of reading books and papers in the wrong order, and have been trying to correct that (That happens when you're self-taught; you don't have anyone to guide you). All history is complicated, but Ukrainian history seems, at least to me anyway, unusually so. I found it terribly confusing at first; the years c.1917-22 are ridiculously complex. Then there's the fact that if you're a Westerner, you have to readjust your thinking, which is no small matter, in order to internalize it. Knowing the facts isn't the same as knowing the facts and understanding, that is, internalizing, them. The hard work is now, *finally*, paying off.
I couldn't agree more! That's a reason why I have been sticking to the books Snyder recommends. I feel hopeless about unraveling the intricate details of Ukraine's history, so will have to be content in knowing ten times as much as Putin does.
I can't tell you how relieved I am to know this. I kept wondering if it was a stupidity problem on my part, or if other Westerners have the same difficulties with Ukrainian history that I do. Part of it, as I mentioned before, is that if you're a Westerner it takes a lot of effort to readjust your thinking. But in addition to that, because of where Ukraine is, there are so many different influences coming from different directions, including from western Europe. But it's not just west-east; more importantly, it's also north-south, the latter especially during the years after 476, when the Roman Empire continued in the east; the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire; and continuing after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. But even during the Roman Empire, the orientation was N-S. Serhii Plokhy writes about the north-south orientation in "The Gates of Europe." And see especially Larry Wolff, "Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment" (1994). Westerners' east-west way of thinking is actually pretty recent.
Rose—
Spiritual teaching refers to the "Four directions": North, South, East, West.
Linking these to the Seasons of the Year, the direction North–South is that of polar opposites: Midsummer S–Midwinter N. The direction East–West finds the Point of Balance between the extremes, thus, Spring–Autumn, where we find the Equinoxes.
These directions are also linked to the Hours of the Day: here due North is the Midnight Hour, due South Midday. Due East is Dawn, due West dusk. As someone famous once said, "Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun".
Ultimately, these directions emanate from the Zodiac, which frames the entry point to this physical world of ours. On the Zodiac today, due North is occupied by the sign of Gemini, the Twins; due South lies Sagittarius, the Archer. To the West we find Virgo, the Virgin, and to the East Pisces, the Fishes.
It is the EAST, not the North, which always has denoted the SPIRITUAL BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. The point on the zodiac where the SUN rises at DAWN on the DAY of the SPRING EQUINOX is called THE SIGN OF THE TIMES.
Today, PISCES THE FISHES gives us what folklore also calls the SIGN OF THE TIMES. Folklore is the people's memory of spiritual teachings given out by prophets and priests and pastors and, before that, directly by initiates. Thus it is no accident that our culture is imbued with symbols and legends and myths and allegories and parables and sayings of Christ the Fish and his Virgin Mother.
You can check exactly where, in the sign of Pisces, the equinox point lies today, by consulting any astronomical reference, since the spiritual accords harmoniously with the physical senses. "As above, so below", as the well-known saying goes. Look at a modern map of the heavens, and you will see that this point lies close to the cluster of stars traditionally drawn as the tail of the Second Pisces Fish, which points along the zodiac towards the sign of Aquarius.
Now, you may safely ignore all popular newspaper astrology which pretends "signs" are something mystically different from our zodiacal "constellations". This popular astrology puts the "Sign of the Times" always at the beginning of the zodiacal constellation of Aries the Ram, which is the archetypal beginning of the zodiac. This thereby misleads people about where we are now in real this-physical-world time, and so it makes money out of ignorance. This unfortunate circumstance is merely a result of an inability to understand a phenomenon called the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES (plus an over-enthusiastic desire by priests to emphasise the newness of the Christ Coming by trying to cancel out everything that came before, which often masked an unacknowledged desire to hold onto a very Unchristian Power Over Others at all costs; thus in trying to convey how, truly, Time Stood Still with the coming of Christ 2000 years ago, they ended plunging the people into Untruths).
Precession of the Equinoxes simply means that, because of a slight discrepancy between earthly and solar rhythms, the Vernal Point of the Spring Equinox moves very gradually backwards through the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces to Aquarius for example, at the rate of 1° every 72 years. This moving point completes a circuit of the whole zodiac every 25,920 years. This cycle is what we know as the Platonic Year. Here, ancient initiate teaching from Plato survives into the historical record to help us in our understanding today.
So, Rose, to bring this extended excursus back to your immediate post, and link deep spiritual teaching to modern historical and sociopolitical research:
"… because of where Ukraine is, there are so many different influences coming from different directions, including from western Europe. But it's not just west-east; more importantly, it's also north-south, the latter especially during the years after 476, when the Roman Empire continued in the east; the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire; and continuing after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. But even during the Roman Empire, the orientation was N-S. Serhii Plokhy writes about the north-south orientation in "The Gates of Europe." And see especially Larry Wolff, "Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment" (1994). Westerners' east-west way of thinking is actually pretty recent ..."
No. The older, spiritual pair of directions is East-West. These always set the Sign of the Times. This understanding persisted officially in England, for example, until very recent centuries. Here, the equinoctial Spiritual Year was distinguished from the solstitial Secular Year. The Secular Year began at the Winter Solstice. It was administrative and economic. This was what the Romans brought us. It has become mixed up with their preceding Saturnalia festival. But our times, deeply understood, are not the times of the Twins, nor of the Archer. We are in the times of the Fishes and the Virgin.
Stay well, and thanks for yet another valuable link in your post. I will follow that up.
Is there a central location to the books he recommends? Thank you!
Not that I know of. I've usually bought the books he's recommended scattered throughout the years--the ones he mentions in talks/lectures, as well as some that are cited in his books/papers .
Just remembered that there are also the notes he handed out to his The Making of Modern Ukraine course in 2022, all of which contain lists of required reading and which he posted on his Substack. Then there are the occasional bibliographies that he's made available on his Substack posts.
My link to Ukrainian mentality is a history of Poland, “God’s Playground” by Norman Davies. What I read there fits in totally with the Ukrainians of today.
“'You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.' That was Zelenskyi’s own radical formulation two years ago, when we were talking about the books and the teachers that had mattered to us.” Yes, you have been one of the greatest influences in my life not only because of your books and public talks, but because you have inspired me to read more history, so that all of the authors of the books and papers I've read over the last 4½+ years are now thinking through me. And for that I am full of gratitude.
"One is what I think of as the Zelens’kyi paradox: a free person can sometimes only do one thing. If we think of freedom as just our momentary impulses, then we can always try to run. But if we think of freedom as the state in which we can make our own moral choices and thereby create our own character, we might reach a point where, given who we have chosen to become, we have only one real choice. That was how Zelens’kyi described his decision to stay in Kyiv: as not really a decision, but as the only thing he could have done and still remained true to himself. It was not only about defending freedom, although of course it was, but about remaining a free person."
This concept often seems a continuous process of discovery and even rediscovery....
Viktor Frankle said "the most basic human freedom, when all other choices are gone, is the ability to choose our own attitude". I suspect Zelens'kyi made such a choice just before saying "I need ammunition, not a ride", and in so saying changed not only his attitude about the Russian invasion, but also that of his country and the world as well.
My copy of "On Freedom" arrived two days ago and I'm reading it...slowly. I regret not having had any Philosophy courses in university or read more extensively on this discipline since then. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to have this book; I think it's quite different in style and substance from most of Professor Snyder's other works, although I'm reminded of the book he co-wrote with Tony Judt "Thinking the Twentieth Century". I'm looking forward to having my copy autographed next month in Chicago; I'm taking my son to the University Club for the talk and reception and I expect I'll buy another copy of "On Freedom" for my son.
Dr Snyder & panel, recent discussion in Kyiv:
https://youtu.be/B7H0hxe_SbY?si=r_fXZur41ciJkIrP
Thank you Dr. Snyder. "Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us." This is the best definition of Amendment 1 I have ever read, And it fits perfectly with my own thought about our first Amendment. The freedom of speech clause is followed immediately by the right to peaceably assemble, Nothing in this amendment suggests the right to spread lies, threats, or insults. It's time the current anti-Constitutional six and the party of trump learned that lesson.
Thank you also for your courteous meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he is a man of courage.
Thank you. This cusp in history is challenging. You are helping us cope.
I will say it again - This book and the work it required of you has changed the language with which you speak. My first TS book was, On Tyranny. It was a cheap book, and I bought ten or fifteen and sent them out to friends. It was a book of histories and facts that told our future. But this book, On Freedom, was different from the others. I'm not sure if it was a writing tactic or the product of a revelation. But it is without question written/spoken in a different language. There is poetry in your voice now that goes beyond facts and reason. I hope when you go back and read passages from this book that you are sometimes surprised with a sense of wonder. “You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.” That line is a poetic line that requires me to think. It is a different language than that of facts and figures. It is the only language capable of guiding us out of our present chaos and darkness. Whether a tactic or revelation, I thank you!
Thank you so much. I just got my two copies and will give the other to old friends.
Thank you, Prof Snyder. This is a fascinating and beautiful account.
A profoundly grounding lived demonstration of the choice to sincere and optimistic self-determination within a conscious personal devotion to mutual human capacity to choose, to act, to discover personal responsibility and personal deliverance from ignorance and self-centeredness in cooperating with others is presented here.
It is a reminder, as sincere a reminder as the choices and actions of Rosa Parks, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for examples, of the individual capacity for rendering useful whatever free choice one has and rendering that usefulness in a mutually respectful and mutually chosen way.
The two assertions that President Zelens’kyi made and which you share with us are astonishing:
“everything is in Shakespeare”
and
“You don’t really have thoughts, other people think through you.”
The opportunity is who does one chose to be, what chosen action in pursuit of what interest(s)
befit the actor one wants oneself to remember and others to witness?. As you note, "if we think of freedom as the state in which we can make our own moral choices and thereby create our own character, we might reach a point where, given who we have chosen to become, we have only one real choice. That was how Zelens’kyi described his decision to stay in Kyiv: as not really a decision, but as the only thing he could have done and still remained true to himself. It was not only about defending freedom, although of course it was, but about remaining a free person."
I am grateful that you have shared these experiences.
That’s what a President should be
RESPECT!