Why Does Joseph Stalin Matter?

Recorded on January 25, 2018.
“Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, creator of great power, and destroyer of tens of millions of lives …” Thus begins this episode of Uncommon Knowledge, which dives into the biography of Joseph Stalin. This episode’s guest, Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941(www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting..., examines the political career of Joseph Stalin in the years leading up to World War II, his domination over the Soviet Union, and the terror he inspired by the Great Purge from 1936-38.
“Why does Joseph Stalin matter?” is a key question for Kotkin, as he explains the history of the Soviet Union and Stalin's enduring impact on his country and the world. Kotkin argues that Stalin is the “gold standard for dictatorships” in regard to the amount of power he managed to obtain and wield throughout his lifetime. Stalin stands out because not only was he able to build a massive amount of military power, he managed to stay in power for three decades, much longer than any comparable dictator.
Kotkin and Robinson discuss collectivization and communism and how Stalin’s regime believed it had to eradicate capitalism within the USSR even in regions where capitalism was bringing economic success to the peasants, with the potential of destabilizing the regime. This led to the Great Purge, a campaign of political repression that resulted in the exile and execution of millions of people.
For the full transcript go to
www.hoover.org/research/why-d...
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Пікірлер: 923

  • @jlondon158
    @jlondon1583 жыл бұрын

    If I close my eyes , I can imagine that Joe Pesci is an Historical Genius.

  • @bastiatintheandes4958
    @bastiatintheandes49586 жыл бұрын

    Greetings from Quito, Ecuador. I will never stop being amazed by the supreme interviewing gifts of Peter Robinson. Lean, well informed, and above all, lets us live the wealth of his fantastic guests.

  • @MoralistaDefinitivo
    @MoralistaDefinitivo6 жыл бұрын

    This guy would need a 10 hour interview.

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    6 жыл бұрын

    www.archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @welderella
    @welderella4 жыл бұрын

    “Political crimes for speaking the truth”.....sounds familiar.

  • @jayeye4798
    @jayeye4798 Жыл бұрын

    Kotkin's perfect delivery of his responses are disconcerting - not because of the content, but because of his lack of mistakes, ums, ahs, and inconsistent cadence. I think he self-corrected exactly one time. This dude is a machine. He's the academic Terminator. You know he's reading the back side of his retina.

  • @chegadesuade
    @chegadesuade6 жыл бұрын

    His two books on Stalin are the most exhaustive yet engrossing biographies I've ever read, they're truly amazing.

  • @HighSpeedNoDrag

    @HighSpeedNoDrag

    5 жыл бұрын

    Yes indeed.

  • @bobjenkins4925
    @bobjenkins49256 жыл бұрын

    Peter must be quite happy at how many young people these days are interested in this kind of content. Great stuff.

  • @PresterMike

    @PresterMike

    5 жыл бұрын

    Millennial here. I love it

  • @welderella
    @welderella4 жыл бұрын

    We heard about Hitler all the time, but not so much about Stalin, in school.

  • @garyjohnston8543
    @garyjohnston85435 жыл бұрын

    Beautiful talk. I also love the talking pace of the guest.

  • @OSCOCAT
    @OSCOCAT Жыл бұрын

    I'm amazed that in this day and age, when long format theatrical documentaries are so popular, that no one has made a multi-part movie explaining what happened in Russia much in the same manner as Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon.

  • @Rasectos
    @Rasectos6 жыл бұрын

    Joe Pesci is my favorite Stalin scholar.

  • @lukecage9836

    @lukecage9836

    6 жыл бұрын

    Rasectos lol now all I hear is Pesci 😂.

  • @shaolin89

    @shaolin89

    6 жыл бұрын

    Haha I knew he looked like someone I had seen before. Its indeed Pesci!

  • @Digiphex

    @Digiphex

    6 жыл бұрын

    A Buick never had positraction.

  • @bazzatheblue

    @bazzatheblue

    6 жыл бұрын

    If this guy entered a competition to do Pesci impersonations,he'd win hands down every time.

  • @Maelli535

    @Maelli535

    6 жыл бұрын

    Yeah - and as George Carlin truly says, it's amazing how much Pesci can take care of with a simple baseball bat!

  • @cybercab
    @cybercab5 жыл бұрын

    Very interesting stuff. Do they even teach this in school anymore? I suspect the answer is no.

  • @doctorgman1

    @doctorgman1

    5 жыл бұрын

    Yes. Beginning a unit on Stalin tomorrow in my IB History class. High school seniors

  • @hanskloss7726

    @hanskloss7726

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@doctorgman1 Do they let you compare the ideology of these dark times to what some prominent politicians of today say?

  • @CoronaryArteryDisease.
    @CoronaryArteryDisease.5 жыл бұрын

    This is such a great explanation of a type of political thinking that is extremely dangerous and I wish more people knew about this history. It is so fascinating, I don’t know why people don’t study it more

  • @calculatedmasochism7058
    @calculatedmasochism70583 жыл бұрын

    When Stephen Kotkin speaks, a wise man shuts up

  • @southernc4919
    @southernc49195 жыл бұрын

    this should have 500,000,000 views and every university professor should see this

  • @alekseysoldatenkov5675
    @alekseysoldatenkov56755 жыл бұрын

    This is ABSOLUTELY fascinating. Thank you for uploading.

  • @baxter987
    @baxter9875 жыл бұрын

    This is amazing. Was he crying at some point? 20:30 Robinson appeared to pick something up. This guy speaks with emotion. I can listen to him for days

  • @chuckymcchuckface8768
    @chuckymcchuckface87684 жыл бұрын

    I once asked a man whom I knew was an intelligen fellow and a historian what would he most like in life... "To remember everything I read" he said. Wise man I thought!

  • @b.terenceharwick3222
    @b.terenceharwick32225 жыл бұрын

    Concise and to the point. Explores the raw notion of power. Accumulation of raw power, independent of anyone else's views. Personal loyalty above all else. Of perennial significance.

  • @muslimmetalman

    @muslimmetalman

    5 жыл бұрын

    total pure capitalism

  • @jomgelborn
    @jomgelborn6 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this great interview.

  • @freekheijting7346
    @freekheijting73465 жыл бұрын

    As always, great interview giving great insights. And you are certainly reaching curious Millennials! Peter Robinson is a formidable interviewer. Going strong since decades!

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    5 жыл бұрын

    archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-paradoxes-of-power-audio archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @nryle
    @nryle6 жыл бұрын

    Great Interview. Cannot wait for the next part.

  • @cavewebster5881
    @cavewebster58816 жыл бұрын

    Many, many thanks for this great content!

  • @papastalin4534
    @papastalin45346 жыл бұрын

    Why do I matter? You're going to Siberia

  • @VertigoX26

    @VertigoX26

    5 жыл бұрын

    I've always wondered what it would be like to go to the Gulag.

  • @DialecticalMaterialismRocks

    @DialecticalMaterialismRocks

    5 жыл бұрын

    Read Grover Furr

  • @vertxxgg

    @vertxxgg

    5 жыл бұрын

    STALIN was a Georgian Ortodox Seminarist he hate OTOMANS and NAZIS were controled from ISTAMBUL...to save GEORGIA and Beria's ARMENIA the Russian must stop Nazis that were in the payroll of Muslims of Jerusalem and Istambul

  • @kyleshick5467

    @kyleshick5467

    5 жыл бұрын

    Papa Stalin LOL

  • @soyusmaximus7176

    @soyusmaximus7176

    5 жыл бұрын

    @@garyvonneida4065 There is no truth in the news and no news in the truth!

  • @4metoknow
    @4metoknow Жыл бұрын

    Masterful - Joe Pesci look alike/sound alike is the bomb!

  • @Nathantodd2012
    @Nathantodd20125 жыл бұрын

    Should we feel nervous when we hear government officials talk about class warfare, pitting the haves with the have nots and etc.

  • @chickenwretch
    @chickenwretch6 жыл бұрын

    First time I've seen Kotkin sitting quite still. Used to watching him rove on stage and into the audience. Socialism in the cities and capitalism in the countryside. A little like Americas fly-over country and progressive cities?

  • @kidwidacake
    @kidwidacake6 жыл бұрын

    Min 13-16 gave me chills.. History repeating itself.

  • @cecilefox9136
    @cecilefox91364 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely fascinating history.

  • @zachstott8354
    @zachstott83543 жыл бұрын

    Would love another video with Kotkin - he's brilliant

  • @winmine0327
    @winmine03276 жыл бұрын

    Wish I could take all of this guy's classes.

  • @lashachakhunashvili1399
    @lashachakhunashvili13995 жыл бұрын

    Excellent as always, glad to have had a chance to attend his lecture in Tbilisi back in 2015

  • @Dracandros76
    @Dracandros764 жыл бұрын

    This is so great, thanks a lot. I only wish it lasted forever. Thanks for letting him explain it properly.

  • @LinusPerssonsTube
    @LinusPerssonsTube5 жыл бұрын

    Would really like to hear an episode or series of Hardcore History with Dan Carlin featuring Stephen Kotkin; or perhaps just an Uncommon Knowledge special with a similar setup. A subject like this needs more time to unfold the necessary nuance to properly explain the mechanisms behind the events.

  • @trolltoll2159
    @trolltoll21595 жыл бұрын

    "He always brings up Stalin" - Norm Macdonald

  • @squamish4244

    @squamish4244

    5 жыл бұрын

    When does Norm Macdonald say that? I tried googling it.

  • @ClaimClam

    @ClaimClam

    5 жыл бұрын

    @@squamish4244 adam egret always says stalin was the bad guy because he wants hitler to look better

  • @squamish4244
    @squamish42445 жыл бұрын

    The irony of Stalin's collectivization and industrialization drive is that it was only possible due to the importation of machinery and skills developed by capitalism, particularly in the United States. Stalin purchased huge amounts of physical capital from the USA in the 1930s. I don't know if the Bolsheviks would have seen it as irony, though...they might have seen it as a way to go directly from a peasant society to a communist one and skip over the capitalist stage entirely in the outline laid down by Marxism.

  • @IllicitGreen
    @IllicitGreen6 жыл бұрын

    absolutely fascinating interview and yes i am a millenial. thank u!

  • @JoshuaSwan

    @JoshuaSwan

    5 жыл бұрын

    IllICITGRYNE I’m proud of you!

  • @khrachvikkhrachvik7049

    @khrachvikkhrachvik7049

    5 жыл бұрын

    Maybe read about how this propaganda's been completely debunked over and over again, then, millenial. :)

  • @squamish4244

    @squamish4244

    5 жыл бұрын

    Everyone knows millennials are the ruin of Western civilization, which is strange considering you haven't been around long enough to actually ruin anything.

  • @just83542

    @just83542

    5 жыл бұрын

    @@khrachvikkhrachvik7049 and yet you cannot provide one reference to this plentiful debunking, to help the Millenials education? For shame

  • @PqV72MT4
    @PqV72MT45 жыл бұрын

    This guy is brilliant.

  • @Reconing1
    @Reconing15 жыл бұрын

    Millennial here. Avid viewer of Hoover Institutions. Please post more content!

  • @Jessica-tz3wb
    @Jessica-tz3wb4 жыл бұрын

    learned more about Russia in this talk than the whole history lessons in high school.

  • @MrRichiekaye
    @MrRichiekaye6 жыл бұрын

    Stephen Kotkin is the most impressive scholar and speaker I have ever listened to. (And I had Pearce Williams at Cornell and Spence at Yale.). Mastery over a vast catalog of sources, acute judicious use of them, perception into character beyond the page and clear expression of conclusions. I've watched many hours of his talks and am eager to learn from him.

  • @Drumsgoon

    @Drumsgoon

    6 жыл бұрын

    A few great speeches of him online

  • @pendejo6466

    @pendejo6466

    6 жыл бұрын

    This guy is such a great story teller, and the interviewer asked all the right question, then let the professor finish his response.

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    6 жыл бұрын

    archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @frankmaitland1254

    @frankmaitland1254

    6 жыл бұрын

    Mr Richie Kaye you think this guy is a compelling speaker?

  • @socialminds9894

    @socialminds9894

    5 жыл бұрын

    I just discovered him and I hope to find more of his work.

  • @androidzombie4769
    @androidzombie47696 жыл бұрын

    you folks should put the author's amazon link in your description.

  • @Mdigi1982
    @Mdigi19826 жыл бұрын

    Always great to hear from Stephen Kotkin!

  • @HighSpeedNoDrag

    @HighSpeedNoDrag

    5 жыл бұрын

    I am aware of the basic history Mr. Kotkin states. First time I have witnessed him. Reverent.

  • @johnnantz16
    @johnnantz165 жыл бұрын

    Wow, what an amazing interview. Thank you Dr. Kotkin for your incredible scholarship!

  • @knockshinnoch1950
    @knockshinnoch19504 жыл бұрын

    Brilliant mind, fascinating discussion

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece42275 жыл бұрын

    AMAZING VIDEO LOVE YOU ❤❤❤

  • @tomjohn8733
    @tomjohn87334 жыл бұрын

    Excellent documentary, a must read ...thank you!

  • @jerrystephens9143
    @jerrystephens91433 жыл бұрын

    so thankful for this

  • @aasldkfja
    @aasldkfja5 жыл бұрын

    As far as the obsession with Trotsky goes and the coerced confessions, I think it just means Stalin was deeply insecure. He needed affirmation that what he was doing was sound and tortured confessions from people to pad that insecurity.

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece42274 жыл бұрын

    AMAZING VIDEO BRAVO ❤😍❤

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece42274 жыл бұрын

    THANKS FOR THE VIDEO ❤❤❤❤

  • @victorydaydeepstate
    @victorydaydeepstate5 жыл бұрын

    This is wonderful

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    5 жыл бұрын

    archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-paradoxes-of-power-audio archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @coreyclamp
    @coreyclamp5 жыл бұрын

    "...someone who knows more about the life of Joseph Stalin than Joseph Stalin knew about the life of Joseph Stalin." 1) That's a bold claim, given how much truth was buried in the Soviet Union, even in post-Stalin era. 2) Don't ever speak that sentence again... It took me a half hour to uncross my eyes.

  • @HighSpeedNoDrag

    @HighSpeedNoDrag

    5 жыл бұрын

    True and valid comment compared to other's references to "Hollywood" thus FICTION.

  • @mattwernecke2342
    @mattwernecke23425 жыл бұрын

    look forward to reading your books.

  • @victorydaydeepstate
    @victorydaydeepstate5 жыл бұрын

    I must buy this book

  • @giorgimerabishvili8194
    @giorgimerabishvili81945 жыл бұрын

    Hello, is Kotkin's biography of Stalin more reliable than of Robert Service?

  • @stevecoscia
    @stevecoscia5 жыл бұрын

    Wonderful interview. Stephen Kotkin speaks with such calm and eloquent authority. Thanks for posting this video.

  • @vangk30
    @vangk304 жыл бұрын

    FASCINATNG interview!! Very revealing.

  • @transkryption
    @transkryption3 жыл бұрын

    great interviews!

  • @jgribhamnz
    @jgribhamnz3 жыл бұрын

    Ive read robert service stuff, and stalin by montefiore (amazing!!!), but heck this guy sounds like he may have a book too top them all. Very astute analysis, great interview

  • @Drumsgoon
    @Drumsgoon6 жыл бұрын

    Great interview, very clear answers.

  • @franz_stigler
    @franz_stigler6 жыл бұрын

    ive been looking forward to this

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    6 жыл бұрын

    archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @Steve-Richter
    @Steve-Richter4 жыл бұрын

    Interesting that Trotsky survived so long. Were all of his supporters Jewish? Did Stalin see Jews as a power block? Did that motivate his actions? Why do Peter and Kotkin not discuss this?

  • @AndyMak-jq1py
    @AndyMak-jq1py3 жыл бұрын

    Excellent interview

  • @BuceGar
    @BuceGar5 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this great content. Highly intellectual and stimulating.

  • @lukecage9836
    @lukecage98366 жыл бұрын

    BEST INTERVIEWER IN THE BUSINESS!!!

  • @Allzumenschliches44
    @Allzumenschliches446 жыл бұрын

    I am a millennial who used to be a marxist and crypto-stalinist some years ago. Thanks to Hoover Institution for constantly putting out this kind of quality content, it really helps! There is so much neo-marxist propaganda out there that voices of reason are desperately needed.

  • @jimv7653

    @jimv7653

    6 жыл бұрын

    Allzumenschliches44 this makes me so happy to hear

  • @madamegouze

    @madamegouze

    6 жыл бұрын

    I'm curious: What do you - did you - consider a crypto-stalinist to be? I've heard several left-wingers call themselves crypto-cum-something but I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

  • @Allzumenschliches44

    @Allzumenschliches44

    6 жыл бұрын

    @madamegouze Oh, a "crypto-x" is just a way of saying that someone is secretly and maliciously something that he isn't admitting to in public. For example I used to be active within a leftist party in my country which officially considers itself to be "democratic socialist" but in reality many of us were hardcore communists, admirers of Stalin and Mao. That is the way leftists operate. They try to persuade the mainstream society with moderate, nice sounding rhetoric but secretly they are far more radical and their goal is to radically transform society towards their ideals by the means of silent subversion. Conservatives in the US and in all of the west need to be way more alert about this and fight back!

  • @swordsheldhigh7934

    @swordsheldhigh7934

    6 жыл бұрын

    Just because I agree with Kotkin doesnt mean I agree with Shaprio, or watch breitbart news.

  • @comradesoros2681

    @comradesoros2681

    6 жыл бұрын

    Then were a revisionist. I find most people who claim to have been Marxists and converted to Liberalism do not actually understand Marxist theory. If you did understand the complex history of the USSR, and you did understand the theory, you'd know that this video is nothing but slander.

  • @jancoil4886
    @jancoil48865 жыл бұрын

    Well done. The professor makes the key point that ideas matter. If you take Marxism or Adam Smith seriously and put their principles into action you can get very different outcomes.

  • @soapbxprod
    @soapbxprod6 жыл бұрын

    I recommend watching some of Yuri Maltsev's lectures here on KZread. Viva Mises.

  • @installwebercarburetorsona6159
    @installwebercarburetorsona61596 жыл бұрын

    Interviewer is heavy handed in his restatements. If it's Stanford students in the audience surely such heavy handed and paternalistic statements undermine the very the very valuable and clear concise presentation by the author.

  • @interianesq
    @interianesq6 жыл бұрын

    I could listen to this guy all day. Gotta love Bach, too.

  • @AgendaFiles

    @AgendaFiles

    6 жыл бұрын

    archive.org/details/stephen-kotkin-waiting-for-hitler-audio

  • @mariaspencersalt8946
    @mariaspencersalt89463 жыл бұрын

    Thank you

  • @michaelkrochek8823
    @michaelkrochek88235 жыл бұрын

    I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy. - Joseph Stalin (1943)

  • @vman9591

    @vman9591

    5 жыл бұрын

    Source?

  • @fatlardshowernow234
    @fatlardshowernow2346 жыл бұрын

    That was great. Peter is an excellent interviewer

  • @benwitt6902
    @benwitt69025 жыл бұрын

    Stalin, hero of the left.

  • @Run.Ran.Run1
    @Run.Ran.Run15 жыл бұрын

    I love listening to intellectual conversation in my own New Yawk accent!

  • @VeraMaier

    @VeraMaier

    5 жыл бұрын

    How degenerated ... brainwash is not "intellectual conversation"

  • @gregswanepoel5710
    @gregswanepoel57105 жыл бұрын

    clear good speaker

  • @vocalbunny7427
    @vocalbunny74275 жыл бұрын

    While I do love the closing music, it seems a bit... too cheery after that closing statement lol.

  • @skwest
    @skwest4 жыл бұрын

    Refreshing to hear _enormity_ used correctly (notwithstanding its awful significance) and within the proper context.

  • @vitareid
    @vitareid3 жыл бұрын

    Stephen Kotkin is one of the most interesting persons I've heard. I'm transfixed.

  • @alanaadams7440
    @alanaadams74405 жыл бұрын

    Very informative I learned a lot, Thank you

  • @aTruster
    @aTruster5 жыл бұрын

    "No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven". The Almighty uses the wicked to destroy the wicked.

  • @sandorfintor
    @sandorfintor3 жыл бұрын

    Thank You.

  • @dr1742
    @dr1742 Жыл бұрын

    It is sad that I am rewatching this and realizing that the same collectivism he said Stalin did with the term "kulak" is the same thing we have been doing recently here in the US with terms like "racist" and "transphobic". Turning the people against each other while drawing everyone to the obedience of the government, who pushed the agenda for that very reason. It truly is a fact that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

  • @guygeorgesvoet4177
    @guygeorgesvoet41772 жыл бұрын

    Dear Mr. Robinson, estimated Sir, i have for you, besides the most emphatic praise for what you have already accomplished on your show, an extremely urgent and important proposal. Both Mr Victor Davis Hanson and Mr. Stephen Kotkin are members of the Hoover Institute. They are both exceptional men of proven quality and accomplishment. They are excellent debaters and expositors of complex ideas in very comprehensive schemes of thought. Yet, yet, as i am since some time now trying to get a hold on what is happening in the world and especially in the US, listening very carefully to these true luminaries (the best show in town, you said yourself about Mr. Kotkin) it so happens that i cannot help noticing an unmistakable and potentially very deep rift in their estimate of things national and international. This comes out abundantly clear when they discuss anything to do with what Trump stood and still stands for. This issue is the biggest issue on the table now, for the US itself but also for the world at large (see the 3rd Lecture on "Sphere of influence" held by Mr Kotkin in Vienna in 2017). I beseech you, dearest Sir, to put them together as soon as possible with you at your table and have them talk about these issues, each one clarifying himself in debate. Both are civilized men, of good cheer, wellintentioned, and modest men. You must have them talk with you together, please, you cannot not do this. I think such a debate could be of the most extreme importance in sanitizing the republican party's grip on things. Because the Us and the world must get beyond what the Trump phenomenon means and has still in store it seems. Only those speakers, together with you monitoring, can vastly and in one go contribute to this as no other team of public intellectuals could. PLEASE, consider my proposal and most vehement request at lenght. Many thanks and loyal greetings from Belgium

  • @Gbd279
    @Gbd2795 жыл бұрын

    where's part two

  • @rickpur100
    @rickpur1005 жыл бұрын

    Dr. Kotkin probably does a great Joe Pesci impression

  • @francescop1
    @francescop15 жыл бұрын

    Millennial crew REPRESENTIN🤘

  • @iknowwhatsup2880
    @iknowwhatsup28804 жыл бұрын

    The term useful idiots was coined by Lenin. This is what your leaders think of you.

  • @albertl623
    @albertl6234 жыл бұрын

    OMG it is a good interview

  • @callmedeno
    @callmedeno6 жыл бұрын

    best interviewer in the fuuuckin game

  • @McIntyreBible
    @McIntyreBible11 ай бұрын

    26:54, Kotkin explains The Great Terror.

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece42275 жыл бұрын

    LOVE YOU ❤

  • @TalkernateHistory
    @TalkernateHistory6 жыл бұрын

    I love Kotkin so much.

  • @ibdaramy5455

    @ibdaramy5455

    5 жыл бұрын

    I listened to Stephen Kotkin give a talk in Canada recently about Russia and before the question and answer time, I was up to that point quite impressed and so were others in the audience. Then the questions came and all of a sudden he lost control of himself and became quite aggressive and said when asked about the expansion of NATO that essentially it was none of Russia's business and that they should just live with that reality. But he did not end there, he literally went on a rampage and could hardly breathe by the time he was done. And the rest of the meeting was no doubt a disaster attacking but Russia and its president. I was taken aback as all of a sudden he sounded like an operative than a historian. What is my point? When someone who has a deep-seated bias writes history books, the public is misled and misinformed. But such shenanigans have been going on for a long time in academia. The problem always occurs when history takes a backseat to politics and truth is no longer valued. Much good has come out of the HooverInstitution but this is not one of them.

  • @Coastoghost

    @Coastoghost

    5 жыл бұрын

    You know, it's funny about Russians. Every single one I've met equates criticism of the leader as criticism of Russia as a whole. This goes hand-in-hand with the average Russian's preference towards personal leadership.

  • @simplicius11

    @simplicius11

    5 жыл бұрын

    @Stephen Day The Soviet Union had a population of 147 million people in 1926 and 171 million in 1939. There was no any 'Ukrainian genocide', there was a famine that hit all the southern parts of the SU, the Volga region, Kazakhstan... That was happening periodically, approximately every ten years in the Russian Empire and the early SU and that famine was the last one. The Soviet Union put an end to food rationing well before Britain did after the war.

  • @HighSpeedNoDrag

    @HighSpeedNoDrag

    5 жыл бұрын

    He's Damn Good.

  • @terenceboris851
    @terenceboris8514 жыл бұрын

    Incredible talk. Is anybody else getting a little Joe Pesci vibe from Kotkin?

  • @StopFear
    @StopFear5 жыл бұрын

    You guys at Stanford, give your guests better chairs. It’s unacceptable that you give grown men those uncomfortable chairs without arm rests. Steven Kotkin also clearly has back problems. I can tell because of my own and I can immediately notice others with it.

  • @DenverDeathrock
    @DenverDeathrock5 жыл бұрын

    I think Stalin's personality disorder issues are seen in his bizarre actions. He sees everyone as either a good friend or a bitter enemy. There's no in between. Like people with personality disorders, he's always afraid of betrayal and abandonment. He can't take criticism of any kind without feeling he's being personally attacked. There's a lack of empathy and a strong sense of objectifying people for his own ends regardless of the consequence to them. Manipulation, superficial charm when it serves his purpose, pathological lying, etc.

  • @goldsher

    @goldsher

    5 жыл бұрын

    Jason West sociopathic, perhaps narcissistic borderline

  • @laserprawn
    @laserprawn5 жыл бұрын

    When Kotkin refers to the murder of 300 Red Army officers, he is not speaking about the Purge - these deaths occurred in the first month after the German invasion, and these officers were scapegoated and executed during the Battle of Moscow in 1941. While may officers were indeed arrested and executed during the previous years, the idea that a depleted officer corps contributed to the poor performance of the Red Army in the early days of Operation Barbarossa is mostly a story spread by Red Army apologists, to present a clean story. In fact, many commanders understood what was happening along the new German border, and before and during the start of the invasion they had warned Stalin - who told them that they were lying. The reality is that Stalin's own incompetence and paranoia had a greater effect at sabotaging the Red Army in the first month of fighting; along with, of course, the devastating operational surprise and tactical superiority achieved by the Germans (the Nazi blunder, of course, being to have underestimated Red Army strength to be 50 full divisions smaller than it was, thanks to poor intelligence).

  • @6663000
    @6663000 Жыл бұрын

    Fascinating

  • @AgendaFiles
    @AgendaFiles6 жыл бұрын

    whoever added the noise-gate ruined the flow and sound quality to this video.