Timothy Snyder

1/20. Democracy is precious and exceptional.

The Holodomor Research and Education Consortium has newly assembled an informative free online course on the history of the Holodomor in Ukraine within a global context of famine and genocide. coursera.org/learn/holodomor @HolodResearchEd

Sky Defense integrates Ukraine’s innovative air defense systems and protects civilian life. We are halfway in this campaign! Please donate if you can. u24.gov.ua/news/timothy-s…

Join me today on Thinking Live for a conversation with Lawrence Lessig on Super PACs and dark money in politics. April 30th, at 3:15 ET, snyder.substack.com

Newspapers shouldn’t cover things Trump says as news. There should be a special rubric called "Trump said this" in the corner of the page or as a separate tab. This would be clarifying. theguardian.com/world/2026/apr…

One way to think about this is that these people, including the secretary of defense, oppose the existence of the American republic. theguardian.com/us-news/2026/a…

When you protest, you say this isn't normal and you prime yourself for other kinds of organization. And protests give a sense of hope. I talked with @katiecouric about the challenges we are facing and what people can do. youtube.com/watch?v=1U0I2w…

“Superpower Suicide” is a concept to help understand the approach of the Trump regime to the rest of the world. We are fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda. snyder.substack.com/p/superpower-s…

The sooner the better. bbc.com/news/articles/…

What does the Iran war have to do with sustaining the Russian economy? Lifting sanctions for Russians does nothing for Americans. It just makes it easier for Russia to continue its war in Ukraine. I spoke with @PhillipsPOBrien about Iran and Russia. snyder.substack.com/p/thinking-liv…

Very serious point here — media vastly overreport what Trump says rather than clarifying for the reader the actual strategic situation.

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has fired wave after wave of missiles, bombs, and drones at Ukrainian civilians—at their homes, businesses, water supply, & energy infrastructure. Please join me in raising funds for defense equipment snyder.substack.com/p/sky-defense

Sure, Russia hasn’t done anything good, so the oil bonanza billions from the US can’t be a reward. It’s just an expression of Trump’s general policy to make life easier for Putin. It serves no US interest whatsoever. kyivindependent.com/this-is-not-re…

Worth adding that Russia did as a matter of fact intervene for Trump in 2016 and that the evidence is widely known, abundant, and collected in various forms, including a Senate investigation, the Mueller report, multiple intelligence investigations, multiple reportorial investigations in the US and elsewhere, and multiple books. Leaving out that crucial fact allows the reader to miss the way this echoes prior authoritarian "investigate the investigator" moves as well as the fundamentally Orwellian character of this. nytimes.com/2026/04/18/us/…

On just one night this week, Russia sent nearly 700 drones and dozens of missiles at Ukrainian civilians. In the 5th year of the war, aerial attacks on Ukrainian civilians have become even more intense and more frequent. Please join me in this campaign for air defense equipment. You can help save lives.

3/3. It’s hard for Trump to end a war when Putin is making so much money from it.

2/3. The biggest example of profiteering is of course the person Trump openly adores — Putin, from oil prices and the lifting of sanctions.

1/3. And this is one more reason the war goes on in some form — people close to Trump are making money from it. theguardian.com/world/2026/apr…