‘Kings and Generals’ a popular YouTube channel focussing on the history of war, has been slammed by its subscribers for an anti-Putin post uploaded to the platform earlier this week.
The channel, which has 2.45 million subscribers, posted a message calling the Russian president a ‘tyrant whose only bid for greatness is the fact that he was born on a pile of oil and nuclear weapons.’
The post also said that when the time came for the history of the Ukraine crisis to be written, ‘they [ie. historians] will write about Russia’s vile and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, fueled by ambitions of grandeur from a madman – Vladimir Putin.’
While the post received some support, the majority criticised it as virtue signalling and inaccurate, as well as promoting western propaganda – the antithesis of proper historical scholarship, which should be objective and based on facts. Many commenters pointed out that the channel didn’t post similar assessments on the illegal US wars in Syria, Libya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and others, nor do they ‘stand with’ Yemen and Palestine in the ongoing illegal conflicts there.
DTNZ has reproduced some of the comments below:
I had faith in you guys..
Let’s just hope the same can be said for Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria.
So glad to see some sanity in the replys. Thinking for yourself seems to be less common recently.
British Empire invaded a lot of places. The list is so long, it would be easier to just name countries that WEREN’T invaded by Britain. But I’m sure they were all justified, right?
Just wondering how come you speaking up for Ukraine but not for other conflicts?
Although it’s good that everyone is pointing out the hypocrisy of this post, the fact that the only alternatives are only in the middle east is somewhat annoying. There are so many wars going on in Africa that nobody even knows about and which is why I assume everyone only mentions Iraq, Yemen, Palestine and Afghanistan. It truly is sad how the second largest continent will never get a mention from any political side.
This is utter bollocks and very disappointing. Stick to talking about history instead of spouting western propaganda. Putin didn’t just wake up one day and decide to invade Ukraine. He has tried to reach a peaceful settlement of this issue since 2014, but has been met with disdain and outright treachery from the US and NATO at every turn. Zelensky and his neo-Nazi Azov crooks have been shelling ethnic Russians for months. There are always 2 sides to every story, especially this one. Incredible that a channel I once regarded very highly should be so ignorant of the origins of this current crisis.
Your channel and content are really great, and I have enjoyed it thoroughly. We can all agree that war is awful, no doubt. Before going forward, I must declare that I, personally, am fully neutral regarding the situation in Ukraine, not taking any side. Why? Because I am aware that I do not fully know all facts regarding this situation, I do not objectivelly know both sides of the story, and lastly, I am but one simple man, and as such, who am I to be so sure what is the real truth in this? I only wish for as less death, destruction, and suffering as possible, on all sides.
That being said, history should not be biased, like this post is. Labeling one side as good and the other as bad is a political opinion, not a historical fact. No such situation was ever, in human history, so black and white as was represented in this post, and rarely is there a morally right and morally wrong side in any conflict. There are only sides with different personal interests and agendas.
If your opinion in this post is based on your own personal feelings and political stances, then, in my opinion, that’s no way any serious historian should present themself. And if, worse yet, your opinion regarding this situation is based solely on blindly believing the “information” that one side is spoon-feeding to the people through mainstream media to serve their own interest, without even stopping for a second to think if what is represented in the media is fully unbiased or even true at all, then I must say that that would make you, to put it very plainly, immature and very tractable.
Again, I am not taking any side in this situation, but what I do know is that this is not good vs. evil, this is a political game between world powers with personal interests far removed geographically from any Ukranian civilian’s home, and in my personal opinion, no one but those fully informed and those living through this situation personally should be able to so surely claim what is true and what is not.
In any case, if your official stance regarding the situation in Ukraine comes down to taking one side, I can no longer consider this channel as a credible and unbiased source of information.
You have never used similar language for the wars started by the west. Yes, war is terrible and innocents suffer but calling Putin a madman is moronic at best. This is a calculated move that makes perfect strategic sense and the west does have some responsibility for this outcome. One would expect a more nuanced view from a channel such as this.
Hopefully historians doesn’t neglect NATO and the US’s involvement in spearheading this nonsense.
You start by claiming neutrality and then go on to simply replicate the silly one-sided narrative that is being disseminated by one of the interested parties in this conflict. This was a very ignorant statement from someone who claims to be a historian.
i was hoping for a more you know…history based approach to the problem from this channel. I bet athenians allso would go “spartans BAD” back in the days of theyr war. Stop trying to find heroes and villains, learn why things are the way they are and maybe we can avoid this type of war next time around.
Definitely we stand with Ukraine because they are europeans with blue eyes and blond hairs ????????
Honestly, I’m seriously disappointed and even angry at this post.
There’s only one side being told in this war.
No one cares to see the other.
And when we, the people who know the Truth, speak about the other sides reasonings, we’re cancelled, shunned, and bullied.
I will not go into a whole rant about this.
But I will say again that I’m disappointed.
Some people in the comments give me hope that the Real Truth is being spread and that hopefully soon more and more people will see what is truly going on.
The media is lying to you all.
They are not to be trusted at all.
I get my information from eyewitness accounts and accounts on social media that give proof to their claims and posts.
That’s all I wanted to say.
Goodnight,
God bless and Protect you all evermore.
Any idea that this channel is objective just went out the window.
Wow, what an incredibly disappointing take from such historically literate people.
This war is much more complicated than that. You can’t simply blame it on “the actions of a Madman”. I hope historians will be able to capture the complexity of this conflict without bias or prejudice.
As a historian, I will reserve my judgement on who is right and wrong untill I have had a chance to compare the “truths” put forward by both sides. At the moment we are only allowed to listen to one side and it is therefore impossible to adopt an unbiased assessment.’
“They will write about Russia’s vile and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by a madman”. Have they already written about the “vile and unjustified invasion” of Iraq by “madmen” George W Bush and Tony Blair??
Tells history is nuanced and not one sided, proceeds to fail at seeing the greater geopolitical causes at stake in this crisis
Oh wow, K&G, you are one my favorite channels ever, but this time, I’m sooo disappointed. I’m so surprised.
Pretty sure the historians will have something to say about NATO’s role in all this too…
Respectfully, I very much disagree with this view of the invasion. To think Putin is some special kind of “madman” is ludicrous. The government of Russia is acting to defend its own interests at the expense of innocent Ukrainians, not because of some kind of comicbook malice, but out of cold strategic calculations. Let us not forget that the “Free World” has done comparable if not worse things multiple times in our own lifetimes, with the invasion of Lybia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia just to name a few. This last one is particularly important since NATO used a very similar “casus belli” or justification as in Russia’s claim of “defending” Donbass independence but with Kosovo.
This of course does not in any way excuse or condones the government of Russia’s unforgivable sacrifice of the lives of soldiers and civilian, it simply calls into question the narrative that Russia is some kind of special evil and NATO is in any way a selfless defender of human rights.
As historians, I would have expected you to be much more critical of the position taken by Western outlets and analyze the topic much more profoundly.
Glory to the people of Ukraine defending their land!
While I greatly admire and support the work of this channel, I must honestly say that this statement does not sound like the work of a neutral historian, but rather a judgmental, purely political statement. Historians should please argue factually and not ideologically, showing the view of both parties and not the biased image of an evil tyrant who wants to subjugate the world for no reason, and on the other side a so-called “free world” which stands up for democracy, human rights, the good and are the protector of all people and animals on earth and all fish in the sea, its only interest is fight against the evil forces of darkness for Freedom!
“The truth of this event will not be forgotten”. If you really stood for the truth you would have mentioned the fact that Nato and the West have been expanding eastward for a long time now.
The current situation for Russia is no different then the Cuban missile crisis back in the 60s. America rightfully objected to Russia planting nukes in Cuba at the time. And the situation for Russia now is the same as back then.
Ukraine is and always has been a buffer zone for Russia and any interference from the EU or America to have Ukraine join the EU or Nato poses a very high risk of escalation, I don’t want an escalation of this war. I don’t support war in any way, but from Putin’s view we have driven him in a corner with no way out, whenever he tried to communicate with the west he has been ignored again and again.
I hope they include how a gang of so-called allies pushed a small country to a position to choose, knowing that whichever choice it’d make it’ll tear it apart. Neutral countries in the world are the only ones that stand with Ukraine, the rest are just looking for their best interests.
Question, is ethnic cleansing of a minority population a valid reason to invade a neighboring state? Edit: because progovernment neo-nazis in the Azov battalion have been ethnically cleansing ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine for almost a decade.
Another easily manipulated human. Pathetic. Msm literally runs your life. You question nothing. Rock on rebel.
Boy, only a week into this whole thing and you guys are already 100% opinionated on it. Doesn’t seem very objective to me. Have you looked into to the reasons, right or wrong, that Russia is doing what it’s doing? Or are you just going to accept the very one-sided narrative that’s it’s all just about territory and expansionism?
No such post for Palestine, no such post for Syria, no such post for Afghanistan. Were they and are they not human of equal standing? Try to be consistant. Dont present ukraine crisis as moral issue when it is majorly geopolitical.
Are you going to do an honest history of Ukraine shutting off the water to thousands of Crimean farms for years, thereby destroying Crimean agriculture? Or does that not fit your particular brand of propaganda? Asking for a friend.
The US invated 49 countries. They installed douzins of dictatorships. There was the destruction of Serbia, the Turkish invasion in Cyprus with 200.000 relocations, 1500 lost people and with 5 UN security Council’s resolutions against it. Why is it that these acts of agression and brutality, didnt suffered damnation and sanctions? I m disgusted with the Hypocrisy and double standarts.
Problems in the USA today:
1. The US dollar’s creditability crisis due to over printing money. 40% of all US dollars in existence were printed in the last 12 months. This is set to devalue the foreign reserves of all other countries. In recent years many countries have been trying to find alternative currencies in trades.
2. Inflation soared above 7% due to money printing and supply chain issue. The Fed has planned to raise interest rates to lower the inflation, which risks hitting the economy.
3. Nord Stream II: Last year the USA warned that Nord Stream II must be stopped, but it’s completed nevertheless. The crisis in Ukraine is the reaction by the USA. More reliance on Russian energy supply means Europe gets closer to Russia. It’s the best interests of Russia and Europe to be close instead of being divided. The USA allowed a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany passing through Ukraine, but NOT allowed a gas pipeline directly from Russia to Germany. Why? Because then the USA could control the gas supply to Germany via its proxy Ukraine (Ukraine has a government that the USA installed in the color revolution at Maidan in 2014). One of the most important purpose of NATO is to control Europe, as the first NATO Secretary General, Lionel Ismay put it: “To keep America in, to keep Russia out, to keep Germany (Europe) down”. The very reason for NATO’s expansion since 1991.
4. Russia and China are planning to use Euro as the currency for oil trades, threatening the petrol-dollar. America has just 4% of the world’s population and it’s isolated from the Eurasia-Afro supercontinent where 87% people live. The economy in this supercontinent is rising faster than America at a much bigger size, and Euro is a natural and preferred currency of trades here. The Americas has a long term strategy against Eurasia, as former American NSA chief Zbignew Brzezinski put it: “It is IMPERATIVE that no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America.”
5. The Military Industrial Complex projects in the Middle East are closing down.
6. Biden’s low support rate heading to mid-term election.
7. Can’t get Russia into a direct war because it is nuclear armed.
If a war broke out in Europe:
1. Euro drops, strengthening the dollar.
2. Capitals from Europe move to the USA. Killing two birds with one stone: reduce inflation, stabilize the economy.
3. Russia is divided from Europe. The USA’s grip on Europe is maintained.
4. Petrol-dollar life is prolonged, therefore the life of the American Empire.
5. Continuity for the MIC.
6. Putting America in a commanding position in foreign affairs could boost the support rate.
7. A proxy war would place the battlefield outside of America. One in Ukraine, one in Taiwan (against China).
Seven major problems/concerns of America could be solved/mitigated if the war broke out in Ukraine. Not really that hard to see who’s behind the crisis.
Ukraine is never the root of the crisis but rather the consequence. If the crisis in Ukraine ends today, the USA would probably look for another proxy to play the game, Color Revolution in Kazakhstan in January for example. Let’s not forget after the Euro was introduced in Europe in 1995, the US supported Kosovo’s independence causing the Kosovo War, as a result the Euro plunged 30%.
In geographical terms: The Chess Players (USA vs Russia), the Chess Pieces (European countries), the Chess Board (Ukraine).
Ukraine is just the chess board. I feel sorry for the ordinary Ukrainian.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of dailytelegraph.co.nz.
i have sveral friends here who were also subscribed to this channel. The channel has been good in explaining conflicts inhistory yet they show how shallowminded they ar ein understanding the two side. This channel was silent in other atrocities perpetuated by the west, the lists is long. As you can see friends, today they comment as Ukraine is a sensation. Donbass, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the list is longer. Yet this channel shows hypocrisy and double standards. Unsubscribing……
That’s not striving for nuance, it’s propaganda. The notion that this is all Putin and only Putin is ludicrous. The map re-drawing the West did after the fall of the Soviet Union was just as ill-informed and incompetent as all the map re-drawings we’ve done since at WWI. Look at the wars and hostilities in the 20th century and up to this day and you’ll easily see that the incompetent map re-drawing by us in the West is behind most of them.
Wooow I can’t believe you have done this. I’ve been here for a long time truly and I’m very very involved and interested in every aspect of what your videos about I’m almost 30 an have enjoyed your videos for a very long time I can’t say how long..but how could you blatantly support a side you who speak about war it’s like you siding with the palmyrene empire against rome you should have stayed neutral and now unfortunately I will unsubscribe.
Full text of Kings and Generals anti-Putin post:
The common misconception is that it is the winners who write history. In reality, history is written by historians. We don’t always get everything right and our craft always strides for nuance and perfection. However, we know that our colleagues will get this one right, immediately. Over the next years, historians will write about a tyrant whose only bid for greatness is the fact that he was born on a pile of oil and nuclear weapons. They will write about Russia’s vile and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, fueled by ambitions of grandeur from a madman – Vladimir Putin. They will write about the unified reaction of the free world, which while it doesn’t get everything right all the time, is at the very least on the right trajectory. But most of all, historians of today and of the future will write about the heroic defiance of Ukraine and its people who are standing tall in the face of invader, demonstrating valor that will live for generations. While there is little that many of us can do directly, we can promise that the truth of this event will not be forgotten.
Our video on the ancient history of the Kyivan Rus talks about the common history of three fraternal peoples and we will donate part of the revenue from that video to the humanitarian causes helping Ukraine in this situation. We make a plea to our dear viewers to consider donating as well to these causes. Here is the link.
