Russia-Ukraine War, October 2022: Unveiling Why Russia Was Not a Great Power Artwork

Harvest of Mars: History and War

Harvest of Mars seeks to uncover the essentials of war. Essentials that have been swept under the rug or forgotten by people and societies eager to rewrite history in a way that is intellectually pleasing. This podcast seeks to open your eyes to aspects of military history that, as Paul Fussell accurately noted, never got into the books because of what he called the Disneyfication of war. Here you will get authentic insights from someone who has a genuine love for the material.If you are curious and enjoy seeing things from a new perspective, this is the podcast for you! You do not even know a lot about military history. Perhaps you enjoy stories about the past but have never taken a history course and are just curious. It’s all good. I get students all the time who are new to history and they learn a ton because I nudge people toward new things they have not thought about rather than have them memorize facts. .

All Episodes

Harvest of Mars: History and War

Russia-Ukraine War, October 2022: Unveiling Why Russia Was Not a Great Power

October 30, 2022 • Joseph A. Campo • Season 1 • Episode 9

"Russia's advantages in capacity, capability, and geography combine to pose insurmountable challenges for Ukrainian forces tasked with defending their country." -- The RAND Corporation, January 21, 2022

In the episode, we investigate how events in the Russia-Ukraine war have unfolded. It was widely predicted by Western strategists the Russia was so much more powerful than Ukraine that any assistance Washington might provide would be largely irrelevant. How could Western experts have been so wrong? How has Ukraine managed not only to stop the Russian offensive, but also counter-attack and actually push back the Russians for the past two months? Our historical memories of the Soviet Union were never well understood and this has led Western strategists to wildly exaggerate Russia's current military capabilities. This episode puts present day Russia and its military into historical context and identifies numerous parallels in history that show the current Russian struggles in Ukraine is not that hard to understand and should have been anticipated by our intelligence agencies.