The Importance of Historical Context

The war in Ukraine may seem distant -- but it affects us all in a million unseen ways. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen to deliver an in-depth masterclass on exactly what is going on. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 3. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 4. Rising to the China Challenge -- Gautam Bambawale, Vijay Kelkar, Raghunath Mashelkar, Ganesh Natarajan, Ajit Ranade and Ajay Shah. 5. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy — Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai). 6. Conflict in Ukraine: A timeline (2014 - present) -- Nigel Walker for House of Commons Library. 7. RUSI's commentary on Ukraine. 8. Rand Corporation's archive on the war. 9. Understanding the Russo-Ukranian War: A Guide From War on the Rocks. 10. Foreign Affairs articles on Ukraine, Russia and China. 11. Maps that update every day from Deep State and War Mapper. 12. YouTubers to follow on this subject: Perun, Timothy Snyder, Anders Puck Nielsen, The Telegraph, Silicon Curtain and William Spaniel. 13. Wind and solar power generated more electricity in the EU last year than gas did. Here’s how -- Stefan Ellerbeck. 14. Economic stress in Russia -- Ajay Shah. 15. More ammo: Improving resilience against extreme surges in demand -- Ajay Shah. 16. Downstream from the Ukraine war -- Gautam Bambawale and Ajay Shah. 17. Bloodlands -- Timothy Snyder. 18. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine -- Anne Applebaum. 19. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 -- Anne Applebaum. 20. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder. 21. What is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 22. Tyranny in the Post-Truth Universe (2017) -- Amit Varma. 23. Why Both Modi and Trump are Textbook Populists (2017) -- Amit Varma. 24. The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama’s essay. 25. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama’s book. 26. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 27. Arthur Koestler and Boris Pasternak on Amazon. 28. Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2005) -- Vladimir Putin. 29. Requiem -- Anna Akhmatova. 30. Russian court orders closure of country’s oldest human rights group -- Andrew Roth on the ban of Memorial. 31. The Resource Curse. 32. Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Vasily Grossman. 33. Dersu Uzala -- Akira Kurosawa. 34. Servant of the People -- The show in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy starts as the president of Ukraine. 35. Volodymyr Zelenskyy plays the piano with his penis. 36. How Corruption Destroys Armies - Theft, Graft, and Russian failure in Ukraine -- Perun. 37. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary -- Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 38. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus -- Ludwig Wittgenstein. 39. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen. 40. National Security Strategy of Japan. 41. Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople (2022–2023). 42. ‘Stop the war.’ 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin — Sam Copeland. 43. Alexander Grischuk’s emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 44. India must detach from Russia -- Renuka Sane. 45. Helping India Replace Russia in the Value Arms Market -- Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach. 46. After Ukraine, Where Will India Buy its Weapons? --  Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach. 47. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Ernest Hemingway. 48. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- John Donne. 49. Night of the Long Knives. 50. Anton Geraschenko's tweet after the Wagner backdown. 51. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller. 52. Max Seddon's tweet about Yevgeny Prigozhin. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘War’ by Simahina.