67 pages • 2 hours read
Timothy SnyderThe Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Snyder starts the Prologue of The Road to Unfreedom by recounting the challenging birth of his son in Vienna in 2010, a year he describes as one of reflection amid a slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. He recalls holding his newborn son and sending out email to his friends and acquaintances, including to a friend who boarded the plane going to Smolensk, which crashed. His account juxtaposes the celebration of new life and the mourning following the air crash, which killed all 96 passengers on board, including the Polish president at that time, Lech Kaczyński.
Snyder remembers his collaboration with historian Tony Judt, who was battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the time that Snyder was working on a history book about political mass murders in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. Judt and Snyder expressed worry about the American society taking democracy for granted. Judt had studied the role of intellectuals in facilitating totalitarianism in the past and saw a parallel in the contemporary dismissal of ideas, which leads to a dangerous weakening of democratic values and institutions.
Snyder reflects on his process of writing a history book about the mass murders in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. His book touched on the overlapping experiences of multiple Eastern European groups under these regimes, focusing on atrocities like planned starvations and the Katyn massacre, where 21,892 Polish officers were executed by the Soviet Union in April 1940. In 2010, a joint commemoration of the Katyn massacre was organized between Russia and Poland. However, the plane carrying the Polish officials to the commemoration, which included Snyder’s friend, Tomek Merta, crashed near Smolensk on April 10, 2010.
The Smolensk crash was followed by tension and conspiracy theories in Poland. Snyder, reflecting on these events, wrote articles about Russia’s potential for historical reflection following the plans to commemorate the Katyn massacre. However, his reflections were ultimately proven naive as Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on power and silenced discussions of Soviet history. Russia’s opposition to the EU and the US became more vehement from 2013 onward, launching a global cyberwarfare campaign, encouraging political shifts in the UK and US, and resulting in a general neglect of historical lessons.
Snyder reflects on the profound changes in society and personal life around the early 2010s, marked by the birth of his children and the rapid advancement of technology, especially smartphones. This era, he notes, was characterized by a loss of historical memory, intensified by people’s use of technology. He argues that the “politics of inevitability” started dominating Western discourse. The “politics of inevitability” holds that there is a linear progression toward democracy and prosperity and ignores the complexities of history and geopolitical realities. This belief, Snyder argues, gave rise to the “politics of eternity,” where societies, stuck in cycles of perceived victimhood and crisis, fail to progress and instead focus on guarding against imaginary threats. Snyder points to how this shift impacts governance, foreign policy, and public consciousness, ultimately obstructing genuine societal advancement.
Snyder details the two dominant narratives that emerged in the 2010s: inevitability, which views every event as part of an overarching progress, and eternity, which sees events as recurring within a cyclical history. Both perspectives distort true historical analysis by creating oversimplified or mythically charged stories, overshadowing genuine, critical understanding. Snyder’s book aims to reclaim an accurate grasp of historical events. He wants to emphasize the role of investigative journalism during events like Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Snyder highlights the necessity of factual reporting as a defense against the distortive effects of political propaganda, misinformation campaigns, and manufactured crises.
Snyder argues that the events of the 2010s, such as the rise of antidemocratic movements, Russia’s campaigns against Europe and Ukraine, Brexit, and Donald Trump’s election, exemplify a global shift from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity. This shift was initially unexpected in the West, exposing a naive belief that either everything will resolve itself or nothing can be done. Russia, having experienced and exploited these dynamics domestically, exported them to the West, leveraging the vulnerabilities of global capitalism and the politics of newly formed democratic states. Snyder concludes that the 2010s is a decade marked by “fake news,” which undermines factuality and enables kleptocratic and oligarchic influences to shape politics.
Snyder describes his approach to historical events in The Road to Unfreedom as similar to that of the ancient historian Thucydides, who analyzed contemporary and past events to clarify the political stakes of the present. Snyder emphasizes that history should function as political thought, offering insights that can prevent the drift into fatalistic narratives and enable active participation in shaping the future. The book stresses the importance of virtues like individuality, endurance, cooperation, honesty, and justice, which Snyder thinks are foundational for strong institutions and societal well-being.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Individualism of Totalitarianism”
In Chapter 1, Snyder argues that the politics of inevitability, the belief that no alternatives exist to the current system, often transitions into the politics of eternity, where history is seen as cyclic and unchangeable, leading to a regime of oligarchy and fascism. He illustrates this thesis through the revival of Ivan Ilyin’s fascist philosophy in modern Russia, which supports the oligarchic structure and justifies the undermining of democratic institutions. Snyder traces how this ideology, which promotes a mythical past and a permanent state of crisis, has influenced Russian politics and impacted its actions toward the EU and the United States.
Ivan Ilyin (1883-1954) was a philosopher who originally articulated his ideas during the upheaval following the Russian Revolution. Over time, his philosophy, which evolved into advocating for a form of Christian fascism, gained significant influence, particularly in post-Soviet Russia. Ilyin viewed fascism as a corrective force capable of rescuing civilization from corruption and decay. This stance gained prominence with leaders like Mussolini and Hitler, whom Ilyin admired for their anti-Bolshevik stances. Living in exile in Berlin, Ilyin’s writings promoted an extreme right ideology, which focused on the purity of divine totality and denouncing the fragmentation of society brought by modernity. Ilyin’s ideas found a new audience in contemporary Russia, where they are used to advance nationalist and authoritarian politics. Ilyin’s work is being used to justify anti-Western sentiment and support for authoritarian governance under the guise of returning to a spiritual order.
Snyder contends that Ilyin’s philosophy paints Russia as mythic entity of prehistoric innocence, while its people are inherently good and untainted by the moral complexities of history. This view justifies a political stance where only Russia’s interests are morally justified, and any actions taken to protect this perceived innocence are necessary, regardless of their impact. Ilyin dismisses the existence of Ukraine as distinct from Russia and views all Russian actions, including aggression, as defensive. Snyder argues that Ilyin’s beliefs are steeped in a Christian fascism that rejects factual history in favor of a spiritual narrative, positing Russia as a victim constantly threatened by external forces.
Snyder claims that Ilyin’s philosophy, which merges mystical and political elements, initially contemplated metaphysical themes and ended up as a foundational ideology in contemporary Russian politics, justifying aggressive actions against Ukraine, the EU, and the US. Ilyin glorifies a prehistoric innocence of Russia, seeing it as perpetually untainted by historical events, which excluded the need for institutional governance or a principle of succession. Thus, Ilyin rejects democracy and individuality in favor of a collective submission to a leader (who is, in fact, a Christ-like redeemer figure). Snyder argues that Ilyin’s views discourage legal norms and social mobility, promoting a static society unified under an authoritarian ruler, supported by oligarchs who benefit from this system.
Prologue-Chapter 1 Analysis
In The Road to Unfreedom, Snyder offers an examination of the ideological shifts in contemporary geopolitics, focusing on the shifts in Russian politics in the decade prior to the book’s publication (2018), as well as the repercussions of these shifts on Eastern European, EU, and US politics. The Prologue mixes Snyder’s personal experiences with global events, setting the stage for an exploration of the political and social transformations of the 2010s. Chapter 1 focuses on the philosophical underpinnings of these transformations, tracing the resurgence of totalitarian ideologies that have shaped the actions and policies of modern Russia through the central ideological figure of Ilyin.
Snyder’s Prologue blends the personal—a detailed recounting of the birth of his child amid critical historical moments—with broader historical reflections. This narrative approach humanizes the historical analysis and illustrates how personal experiences can reflect larger societal and political shifts. Snyder contextualizes the events in his life, such as the birth of his son in a public hospital in Vienna and the death of a close friend in the Smolensk plane crash, by tracing their social, political, and ideological background. The birth of Snyder’s son during a time of global instability, marked by the 2008 financial crises and significant political events like the commemoration of the Katyn massacre and the Smolensk plane crash, serves as a metaphor for the profound changes the world was undergoing:
The next evening, I read the responses to my birth announcement. One friend was concerned that I understand the tragedy amidst my own joy: ‘So that you don’t find yourself in a difficult situation, I have to tell you that Tomek Merta was killed.’ Another friend, whose name was on the passenger list, wrote to say that he had changed his mind and stayed home. His wife was due to give birth a few weeks later. He signed off: ‘Henceforth everything will be different’ (4).
This blending of personal and historical fact is one of the chief narrative strategies in Snyder’s work and underscores a recurring idea, namely, that history is not just a backdrop to the lives of individuals, but instead it actively shapes and is shaped by personal experiences and by individual agency. One’s choices are, nevertheless, not always made in relation to historical events, therefore introducing an element of contingency in the understanding of historical narratives. The fact that one of Snyder’s friends died in the tragic Smolensk crash, while the other did not was based purely on chance. With this account, Snyder aims to ward off conspiratorial thinking about such a significant event. In his opinion, the more significant elements in understanding the events of the 2010s are the historical and ideological background that informs the politics of that time.
Snyder articulates a critical transition from the politics of inevitability—the belief that democracies will continue to thrive and expand unchallenged—to the politics of eternity, where history is seen as cyclical, leading to a perpetual state of victimhood and crisis. This shift is crucial in understanding the rise of authoritarianism in Russia—as well as Russia’s Missed Democratic Opportunity—and, subsequently, the rise of authoritarianism in other EU countries, such as Hungary, which threatens democratic norms with erosion. The politics of inevitability, Snyder argues, lulls societies into a false sense of security, as it allows them to hold on to the belief that progress is preordained and inevitable. Thus, the citizens of those democracies do not need to be involved, do not need to actively maintain the values that their democratic countries hold at their core. However, this belief is shattered when confronted with the realities of economic disparity, political upheaval, and the resurgence of ultranationalist and authoritarian ideologies. The politics of eternity, embraced by regimes like Putin’s Russia but increasingly prevalent in the ideologies of the new far-right movements in countries like the UK, France, Austria, Germany, and others, exploits this disillusionment, promoting a narrative of eternal threat and conflict that justifies authoritarian measures and stifles democratic dissent.
Chapter 1 of Snyder’s book focuses on the philosophical revival of Ivan Ilyin’s ideas in Russia. Ilyin, a Russian emigre and philosopher, formulated a version of fascism that has been adapted to fuel the modern Russian state’s narrative and policies. His philosophy, which idealizes a prehistoric national purity and advocates for a totalitarian state free from the corruption of democratic and multi-party systems, provides a foundational ideology for Putin’s Russia. Ilyin’s rejection of factual history in favor of a mythic past where Russia is portrayed as a perennially innocent victim aligns with the Kremlin’s foreign policy and its domestic governance strategy. This revival also facilitates the state’s control over public consciousness, turning political debate into a managed spectacle where truth becomes malleable and state propaganda dominates public discourse.
Significantly, Ilyin’s philosophy is used as a basis to oppress and attack otherness, either inside Russia, for example people who do not fall in line with the authoritarian decrees, or outside, such as citizens of Ukraine, Georgia, or the EU. Snyder traces Ilyin’s totalizing thought to the philosophy of the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel:
G. W. F. Hegel’s ambition was to resolve the difference between what is and what should be. His claim was that something called Spirit, a unity of all thoughts and minds, was emerging over time, through the conflicts that defined epochs. Hegel’s was an appealing way of seeing our fractious world, since it suggested that catastrophe was an indication of progress. History was a ‘slaughter bench,’ but the bloodshed had a purpose. This idea allowed philosophers to pose as prophets, seers of hidden patterns that would resolve themselves into a better world, judges of who had to suffer now so that all would benefit later. If Spirit was the only good, then any means that History chose for its realization was also good (30).
As Snyder argues, Ilyin adapted Hegel’s concept to justify Russia’s authoritarianism as part of a historical destiny, positing that Russia is moving toward an inevitable, spiritually unified state. This manipulation of Hegelian philosophy supports a vision of Russia progressing through historical conflicts toward a predefined ideal, where sacrifices and even atrocities are deemed necessary for the greater, nationalistic good. Snyder points out how this philosophy underpins an autocratic regime that views opposition and diversity as threats to the so-called spiritual unity.
Thus, Ilyin’s interpretations offer not just a philosophical underpinning but also a moral justification for the Russian state’s suppressive and expansionist behaviors, painting them as unavoidable steps toward Russia’s destiny. This totalizing view turns complex social, political, and historical realities into a simplified narrative of national resurgence and moral clarity, where the state, guided by a prophetic leader, knows and acts for the ultimate good of its Spirit.
Therefore, the Prologue and Chapter 1 of Snyder’s The Road to Unfreedom introduces the main themes and ideas that Snyder will develop throughout the rest of the book. Snyder’s book is written for a wide public, therefore his ideas are presented in an accessible manner. However, the book contains detailed historical and ideological analyses of events. Snyder opposes the simplification of narratives which, he argues, leads to a politics of inevitability and, subsequently, of eternity. Therefore, he carefully maintains a delicate balance between accessible writing and complexity of analysis in his writing.
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