Stephen Kotkin on Solzhenitsyn 01/14/2019

Historian and author Stephen Kotkin of Princeton University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the historical significance of the life and work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Solzhenitsyn's birth. www.econtalk.org/stephen-kotk...
EconTalk Extra: www.econtalk.org/extra/second...

[@oO-_-_-_-Oo]

Lex Friedman introduced me to Kotkin and I'm very grateful for that.

[@Paulmancieri67]

Listening to Professor Kotkin is an absolute joy. A true master historian.

[@uralbob1]

S. Kotkin, G. Peterson, V. Hanson, even Hitchens: I am a sponge for their every word. These people draw us to them and leads one to think. That's a real gift to us.

[@alexanderkuptsov6117]

You mean J Peterson?

[@davidtrindle6473]

You are a far right wing sponge. There’s a lot of info (centrist and left) your sponge doesn’t reach

[@uralbob1]

@@alexanderkuptsov6117 Oops, yes!

[@artsartsart]

@@davidtrindle6473 Everyone listening to everything is a liberal fantasy. We only have so much time and interest; as long as the people we learn from are honest and scrupulous it should not matter where they stand politically.

[@matthogg2252]

Maddow, Lemon, Gladwell, Barrie Weis ,are the really intellectuals of our times.

[@josefadams647]

God Bless Stephen Kotkin and God Bless Solzhenitsyn

[@julqw2]

Omg, Solzhenitsyn was a liar, his stories weren't supported by facts.

[@josefadams647]

@@julqw2 lolol GTFO - anyone will say anything to be a contranian - that or you're a f'n commie

[@zekeferrante5039]

I love Steven Kotkin. Brilliant historian. Deep insights. But, damn, if he doesn't sound exactly like Joe Pesci!

[@wahyuindrasto8307]

*Exactly. He sounds like an educated and eloquent Brooklyn mafioso.*

[@mathewsmith7305]

1. Joe Biden isn’t winning. 2. People do not know how to do research. 3. Donald Trump is an asshole(so what!) He is wise & gets things done & is helping people & companies Win 4. Bubba Wallace wasn’t a victim. 5. Black lives do matter. 6. What happened to Floyd should never happen again. 7. All cops aren’t bad, nor are they all racist. 8. Brown lives matter. 9. Rioters and looters have nothing to do with George Floyd. (And should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law). 10. Unborn black lives matter. 11. Unborn ALL lives matter. 12. Colin Kaepernick isn’t a hero. 13. CNN isn’t news (nor is MSNBC). 14. Elizabeth Warren isn’t Indian. 15. Facebook only censors conservatives. 16. ALL lives do matter (red, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in HIS sight). 17. COVID-19 is being used to gauge just how much of our freedom they can take away. 18. ALL FEAR IS FUELED BY THE MEDIA. 19. God is STILL in control. 20. Epstein did not kill himself. 12. Nascar did though. 22. There is NO White Privilege.(No one is in control of what color they are born!) 23. LIFE IS what YOU make of it! No one OWES You! Copy, paste, & SHARE

[@noname123412]

he even looks like him!

[@Johnconno]

@@noname123412 Don't push it...

[@okra7648]

That's a virtue! I wish more historians sounded like Joe Pesci! haha

[@alanaadams7440]

It is a miracle his books survived and that so many people got to read them

[@duellingscarguevara]

The last one? Survived?. Whats the title again...🤔

[@DeepTexas]

i like kotkin’s cadence. brilliant guy.

[@freckleheckler6311]

I find it fascinating myself. Very Marvellous and bright individual.

[@rickyosborn4453]

@@freckleheckler6311 get

[@rickyosborn4453]

@@freckleheckler6311 BB

[@zackweiland5545]

I concur, some speakers have interesting things to say, but their delivery is slow, monotone, rambling. But Kotkin has a good pace and an engaging style. Best yet, fascinating material!

[@getevennow]

Prof Kotkin has added great value to my understanding of my country’s politics.

[@bgilley8199]

While I agree that Solzhenitsyn believed suffering can build moral character, I think he also masterfully described how suffering can destroy and warp and drain a person's physical and mental being, including one's moral character.

[@DDCrp]

Suffering will take you too loo-ow places and the body keeps the record

[@tolyamochin4066]

Продолжайте и дальше читать этого вруна Солженицына. Этот дурак Солженицын в своей писании утверждал, что во времена Сталинских репрессий было уничтожено 120-ть.миллионов человек. Однако, по переписи 1940-го.года в Советском Союзе прозивало 191,7 млн.человек. Это что же получается - за какие-то два года репрессий страна потеряла почти 60℅ своего населения. А кто же тогда во Вторую мировую войну воевал? Кто в тылу на заводах и фабриках работал? Кто землю пахал и выращивал продовольственные культуры? А после окончания войны восстанавливал города и сёла, фабрики и заводы, разрушенные электростанции и мосты? Вобщем ,Милейший, включите логику в своей голове и не читайте всякий бред!

[@morleyevans]

I'm a Kotkin fan. Kotkin knows what he's talking about because he works hard.

[@smitty18541]

Professor Kotkin is a man of lofty genius.

[@danielnobel5869]

Very eloquent

[@duellingscarguevara]

Just stupid enough to make others feel smart. Performing seals get a fish, when they clap.

[@tolyamochin4066]

Как учитель русской школы хочу вас поправит немного. Гений это не тот человек, который только в одном направлении знаний умён, а гений это тот , кто во всех областях человеческого познания отлично соображает. А таких в современном мире не больше десятка. Так что, прежде чем называть кого-либо гением, следует очень хорошо подумать. Иначе это понятие попросту обесценится.

[@duellingscarguevara]

I would love to hear his critique of solzhenitsyns last book. (Maybe he one trick pony).

[@tarasmanolov]

@@tolyamochin4066 I don't know what is taught about genius in Russian schools, but it is possible to be a genius in one field only in English. It is quite clear, for example, from this Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius

[@6663000]

Stephen Kotkin is brilliant as always.

[@KeithWilliamMacHendry]

Kotkin is supreme, he deals with facts & that man knows the facts, I could listen to this wonderful learned man all day. What a gem he his for human history. Massive respect from a Scot.

[@johnschlesinger2009]

This is a most valuable talk. I read a number of the novels in the 1980s - they are wonderful, and gave me, a westerner, insight into not only the horrors of the camps, and the kgb/nkvd operation, but also information about everyday life in the soviet union. So this perspective added to my knowledge.

[@dougwilliams8602]

He had a Christian conscious and that set him apart. It gave him a value system that Soviets did not own

[@genekalutsky8813]

Who? Solzhenitsyn? A stooge of the GULAG administration had a Christian consciousness?!

[@TheBanderson22]

@@genekalutsky8813 A stooge of the Gulag? What have you done in your life?

[@genekalutsky8813]

@@TheBanderson22 At least I have reviewed the latest scholar research on himq

[@laurasalo6160]

*conscience con·science /ˈkän(t)SHəns/ noun an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior. "he had a guilty conscience about his desires"

[@marcusaurelius9123]

You mean like Putins Christianity? Or perhaps it's the person's character

[@danb2622]

Thanks for posting this. Worthy of multiple listenings. Kotkin is an unflappable giant!

[@timfronimos459]

I could have listened to this discussion for hours.

[@Doc_Tar]

My new favorite academic lecturer, Stephen Kotkin.

[@EXCELGUPTA]

I have learnt so much in one hour. Thanks so very much.

[@brianlamb879]

I have read extensively on Stalin and the former USSR and of course Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag' -- Stephen Kotkin adds valuable insights. thank you!

[@nicks3350]

Can you recommend anyone else as knowledgeable on Stalin/USSR as Kotkin? Preferably someone I can find on KZbin, as I spend most of my day reading.

[@DorionNorton]

@@nicks3350 You may find Sean McMeekin to be a good repository of information and knowledge. A number of his videos are here on KZbin.

[@nicks3350]

@@DorionNorton I’ve been watching some of his videos later after reading “Stalin’s War” thank you for the recommendation. 👍

[@DorionNorton]

@@nicks3350 glad to share!

[@richardlindquist5936]

@nicks3350 Look at Young Stalin by Montefiori.

[@lieshtmeiser5542]

I do enjoy listening to Kotkin on the subject of stalin and USSR/communist russia.

[@duellingscarguevara]

Why?. Confirmation bias?.

[@lieshtmeiser5542]

@@duellingscarguevara Probably to some degree, yes. Im sure Putin doesnt like people telling him that his war in ukraine is a failure, eh?

[@duellingscarguevara]

@@lieshtmeiser5542 failing hard atm eh?. Where do you see it ending, just out of interest. (If your ai, don’t bother,..necroposting wasn’t cool of me, 3 years later. See how you navigate this little cesspool).

[@lieshtmeiser5542]

@@duellingscarguevara What planet are you from exactly? You think youre a god because you know what confirmation bias is? Wake up.

[@duellingscarguevara]

@@lieshtmeiser5542 haha, I know who you work for.

[@christianlberg]

Amazing talk! Thank you so much!

[@johnappleby405]

Really interesting and valuable interview. Mr Kotkin is worth listening to and I must read some more of his books. I’ve only read ‘Steeltown USSR’ so far. Thank you for making this available. Good insights into Solzhenitsyn another writer I must go back to!

[@marksaulnier2222]

Excellent interview. Stephen Kotkin is such a unique and interesting style amongst the best in the business at the Hoover institution.

[@livingroomc]

The wisdom of Kotkin is inspiring and humbling to me.

[@flywheelshyster6549]

Just a wonderful talk

[@thanhlan3732]

I'm listening to the first volume. I grew up in a communist country. It was never even remotely as bad as china or USSR in terms of persecution, oppression and economic depravation. My parents have always taught me about the evil of communism. I'm almost 40 and only this year did I hear about this book. It is haunting, heart breaking...and yes funny. The narrator is british so of course. But this book should be taught in all schools. Even parts of it should be read by people everywhere.

[@ianbanks7163]

That was wonderful . A big thank you to all involved .

[@Fieldwalker264]

So much said in this interview to ponder, thank you for insightful questions and of course, the hard wrought wisdom of the answers. Challenges to live by. It would be interesting to hear Stephen Kotkin's gleanings on power, what character flaws to be alert for, especially in light of the growing call for socialism in the U.S.

[@-dash]

@@duellingscarguevarawhat’s an “agency shill”?

[@duellingscarguevara]

@@-dash OK dash, I want 1500 words, single spaced, on Solzhenitsyn's last book. Can you repeat the title for me please?. I bet you won't. Dashill

[@-dash]

@@duellingscarguevara I’m not ready for the assignment! I still have questions!

[@Backwardlooking]

Who among us would have had his moral courage?. Thank goodness that ‘Cometh the Hour Cometh the Man’ holds true in human history.

[@peterwhite7428]

Brilliant as always. Informed, factual, and articulate.

[@CurtOntheRadio]

Excellent show. Thanks. I just picked up Vol1 of Stalin trilogy and am anticipating enjoying it after hearing Kotkin in this and other podcasts.

[@markmyword8220]

Thank you

[@paulreuben7343]

excellent interview

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

THANKS FOR THE VIDEO ,, ❤ LOVE YOU

[@dougmoore5252]

Absolutely true!

[@TheDennisConway]

Wonderful as usual Stephen and The Hoover

[@george1la]

Fantastic discussion as usual.

[@mrlinushermansson]

Amazing.

[@ingenuity168]

Kotkin has a strong clear voice. 👍🏻

[@josephsulimay7475]

steven kotkin is the man.

[@gggusc11]

Great video

[@exchequerguy4037]

Kotkin is an amazing historian :) I might add Franco as a "gold standard" dictator - he lasted about as long as Staline, died beloved by his people, and his work survived him. Spain is a stable constitutional monarchy largely due to the institutions and people he put in place.

[@edwardb7811]

This is a brilliant interview.😊

[@jameslippincott7440]

I have listened to many of Professor Kotkin’s lectures and this is far and away the best and my favorite. I read Solzhenitsyn before I knew anything about him and this talk has convinced me to start reading the Gulag Archipelago.

[@christopherrobbins9985]

Everyone should listen to Solzhenitsyn's graduation address to Harvard university in the late 70s. Loaded with wisdom. Warned against the unbalanced extroversion of the West leading to a different can of worms. Material reductionist viewpoints invariably lead to the loss of soul. We must have balance between the conscious and unconscious aspects of life. He also presaged the rising destructive nature of an unfettered, un-tethered media. Everybody wants rights but no one wants corresponding responsibilities. Solzhenistyn had courage and wisdom stacked like cordwood. RIP.

[@kevinrung4178]

Liked: "Worth listening to again." Kotkin's insights and context to S. is wonderful - refreshing. Many have forgotten or discounted S. in the 21st C. I think I may have been one of those people. This is a must listen to podcast for anyone who thinks they want to better understand the meanings of the not-so-abstract concepts of morality, social justice, Christian consciousness and more.

[@maggyfrog]

finally, someone who actually understands russian history in the last century rightly judging solzhenitsyn as NOT anti-semite. people seem to carelessly just throw around that accusation to anyone remotely critical of anything remotely related to israel.

[@efanshel]

I would like to meet Mr. Kotkin someday. Such a great communicator. I had a minority childhood in Washington Heights. I knew the Mirapol boys. I read all the Solzhenitsyn books in my teens and twenties. I read Orwell. I read the making of the atom bomb and dark sun, the making of the hydrogen bomb. My family ran the gamut from diehard Stalinists to Hasidic highly observant jews. There were Zionists too. I live in California, and I have no one to talk about this stuff with.

[@MrCarkyle]

Thanks for doing this interview. I love these Joe Pesci movie reviews.

[@7basement]

Steve kotkin a gem...

[@arthursoctomah9175]

Good stuff

[@mikep584]

Solzhenitsyn was a russian imperialist and never hid that in his later years. Read some Ivan Bahryany or Varlam Shalamov instead, they wrote about the Gulag before Solzhenitsyn

[@tolyamochin4066]

Солженицын не является русским человеком. Да писал он свою муть на русском, но по национальности он еврей.

[@bradfordmccormick8639]

There has always been soething about Mr. Solzhenitsyn which troubles me: "So long as we wake under a peacesful sun we must live an everyday life" (Harvard Speech). He lamented when persons had it easy, when they could enjoy living not prove their character in suffering. My chlidrearing here in "the West" led me to a different position: I wanted to live before I would die. Rrose Selavy.

[@whatacrazyride1658]

i llove Kotkin’s word choice. reminds me of ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’, the number one hit by The King. The world is a stage, baby.

[@pantera29palms]

Read his short stories. Life changing.

[@Ronbo1948]

The man is spot on about Alexander Solzhenitsyn: I've read all his books and was quite impressed with his exposure of the GULAG death camps of Stalin. Of course, other writers had written book about the GULAG, but it took the genius of Solzhenitsyn to finally catch the attention of the world in the early 1970s. Kotkin captures the essence of Solzhenitsyn whose books are studied in today's Russia and exposes the true nature of communism.

[@savoirfaire3469]

Your intro music is what Solzhenitsyn would have wanted.

[@imonlyamanandiwilldiesomed4406]

The increase in interest in Solzhenitsyn is because Jordan Peterson keeps taking about him; the guy has been pretty popular over the last few years.

[@revanofkorriban1505]

Listen more to Kotkin than Peterson. Jordan Peterson's not nearly as historically astute, and is mistaken about quite a few things. It's unfortunate that Jordan Peterson was picked to write the foreward to a recent edition of the The Gulag Archipelago, when there were so many more qualified people to do it.

[@imonlyamanandiwilldiesomed4406]

@@revanofkorriban1505 Yup, Kotkin's Stalin series is interesting, listened to a few interviews with him. I see he hasn't released the third book yet :(

[@vladosub]

Would like to hear what was Solženjicins views and thoughts after returning from Vermont to his homeland

[@roc7880]

AS was many things. Scientist, mathematician, philosopher, writer, failed husband, cancer survivor, soldier, citizen..... We leave in a world where you are reduced, even canceled, for a minor nuance or shade, and today AI would refuse AS the status of prisoner of conscience because he offended some people. If you want to understand AS, look at all what he did.

[@JRBNinetynine-mf6gy]

I see a lot of these comments are from 2 years ago, but now, it's vital more understand that, Apps, and AI, are a greater danger as any to the future of humankind.

[@richardcory5024]

One of the reasons for Solzhenitsyn's "difficult reception" in the West, as Kotkin describes it is due to Solzhenitsyn's famously bad temper and irritable demeanour which was hugely contributed to by his intractable sciatica. He could never sit down without being in severe pain and discomfort and even then he was, to say the least, grumpy. This did not go down well in the US, which does not like such displays in public. Anyone who has had sciatica will understand a little better this situation that Solzhenitsyn found himself in.

[@herbertvanlynden6629]

But there exist good treatments for sciatica.

[@richardcory5024]

@@herbertvanlynden6629 Someone could have helped him then.

[@duellingscarguevara]

Yeah, nothing to do with his last book at all?. (You know, the one they pretend he never wrote, and won’t translate to English)?. This joker is an agency hack. I find his lip smacking lies irritating, but that’s just me.

[@richardcory5024]

@@duellingscarguevara Even if his later works were judged disappointing only pro-Stalinist hacks will deny that his earlier works were great literature and deserving of high praise, including the Nobel Prize.

[@duellingscarguevara]

@@richardcory5024 Ahem...was there something amiss, with the scholarship of his last work?. What’s a pro-Stalinist btw?. (Wasn’t that, that one guy, and everyone else living in fear?. What has taken that to a national level?..now, let me think...who wants to rule the world by fear?). Let’s just memory hole it, shall we?.

[@anng.4542]

A great man. RIP, Aleksandr Isayevich.

[@roc7880]

There is a common trait between them of distrust of big ideological abstractions as the last standard for dealing with human beings. Attention to detail and human complexity.

[@etbadaboum]

Great Kotkin as usual

[@alo1692]

He is terrible. His liberal political views has disabled the real understanding of history. Stephen Cohen is way better.

[@etbadaboum]

@@alo1692 I also like Cohen on Russia

[@harrison6082]

58:29 That's very well said

[@fernandoscrenci4874]

He was born in the right time period !!!! ☝🏻🧐

[@andrewmcmillan2921]

The Gulag Archipelago should be required reading in high schools but they still require the Red Badge of Courage and the Great Gasby...give us a break.

[@roc7880]

I see no reason why all of those three books should not be required for school reading. there are not contradictory, and even if they were, the idea of modern education means showing kids different ideas and perspectives and letting them decide.

[@murrayaronson3753]

The Red Badge of Courage and The Great Gatsby are worthwhile books. I'd suggest Cancer Ward or First Circle. In the case of the latter to gently remind the readers that during its time frame the horrors of the Hollywood Blacklist and McCarthyism were taking place in the United States.

[@lumbago784]

Not even sure why you'd bring this up. Gatsby is an amazing book but is nowhere near the Gulag series in its intent or scope. Any other random issues you'd like to bring up?

[@tolyamochin4066]

Эту глупость дурака Солженицыны, вы читайте в своих западных школах. А в российских школах бред еврея Солженицына не нужен.

[@MichaelAndreula]

200 years with them

[@yp77738yp77739]

Interesting, thank you. I see it as a validation that there is a way between individual capitalism of the US and State Capitalism of the USSR and that is the socialism with Chinese characteristics. Regardless of the anti Chinese propaganda in western media I know first hand that there is only repression in the event that disorder might spread. That repression is no different than the covid restrictions in the west. It uses the wealth creation and technology aspects of capitalism and merges it in a more equitable distribution of wealth. Seems the best way forward, so far it seems to have a stunning performance and everyone in the country benefits. It’s a shame that Kotkin doesn’t see this as the benefit to humanity that it is.

[@arnoldloudly5423]

Theres always a lot to unpack with the USSR. If you haven't read 'Gulag. you realy should. It'll break your heart mind.

[@carriersailor2474]

I read "Ivan Denisovich" in High School, having been turned on to Solzhenitsyn by the National Review mag. I had already been a heavy reader of both sci fi, but also regular novels from a small kid, and his writing let me fall into that story very well. I never had the desire to tackle the massive "Gulag." I'm already sold for most of my thinking life on the horror of it, and Communism, and Socialism as well. But one aspect of the Soviet concept that is now powerful in our culture - PC- has been crushed in Putins' Russia. As a former KGB Major, he was trained in destroying a target country from within, and saw himself how it crippled many "Party" minds. So he has all three volumes of "Gulag" taught in Russian High Schools, while our schools systems are marching us into hating our country.

[@arsen-jb1gs]

peterson and kotkin really brought something that we forgot and ignore about communism somehow our society seems to think it has levels like good to bad rather that plain evil.

[@christophereduardo9903]

Evil why? Gulag is just a jail. American prisions today are objetively worse.

[@TheBanderson22]

@@christophereduardo9903 American prisons are objectively worse? It was just a jail? Holy shit.

[@graham6132]

Still waiting for Volume 3 . . .

[@steelawayca1]

interesting comment about Solzhenitsyn's research not including 'secret archival material' but reading the Russian experiences of other Russian authors as well to combine with his own. I read his books in the sixties along with my college friends, and still, have the same image of Stalin impressed upon me while reading his stories. Over the past almost four years, I've studied the Russian language and have a regular daily viewing of Russian serials and movies on youtube. Whenever Stalin is portrayed he tends to be presented exactly as Solzhenitsyn would have described him. While folks may wait for Kotkin's third covering from 1941, that time period is presented in many ways in Russian media (that is, by other Russian authors). Kotkin's books as reviewed in the Hoover Institute's interviews with him are excellent analyses of the Russian experience. Western education on the subject must certainly change and move in the direction of Kotkin's point of view.

[@tolyamochin4066]

Если ты через бумагомарателей узнаешь об всех этапах Советской истории, которые в угду США писали всякие небылицы того времени, то грош цена твоим познаниям. Любая история познаётся в строгом анализе документов. Если ты это до сих пор не понял, то значит твоя голова забита всяким ненужным мусором.

[@erict.35]

After having read every single comment in this comment section, I conclude there is no agreement, even on the basic meaning of the man’s literary work, or consensus regarding the man’s historical significance. The amount of confusion and frustration is breathtaking. All because some people can’t swallow the fact that he was a realist who recognized the importance of national tradition. Sad.

[@geofromnj7377]

I recall seeing in 1990 a round table discussion on the McNeil-Leher report in which the moderator asked the attendees precisely when did the Soviet Union collapse. One of the attendees whose name I don't recall said, "The Soviet Union collapsed the year the Gulag Archipelago was published in the West, because the "Gulag" made it impossible for Western liberals to any longer support the Soviet Union, and it was Western liberal support which kept the Soviet Union alive.

[@geomac650]

I have conducted a small social experiment during my quite extensive travels throughout the ex Soviet Union by asking while dining with large groups of the indigenous people if things were better or worse during soviet times. And mostly, they say it was better

[@tolyamochin4066]

Всё очень просто объясняется. При Советском Союзе была стабильность в Европе и в мире. И с Америкой были ровные взаимоотношения. А вот теперь стабильность эта нарушена и в любой момент может начатся ядерная война.

[@-dash]

⁠@@tolyamochin4066there was stability? What about the Bay of Pigs, or the missile crisis? John Kennedy was publicly shot in the head…

[@josefschmeau4682]

The USSR may indeed be gone, but human stupidity and dreams of utopia remain . 😖

[@eldragon4076]

Especially since it is re-emerging in the U.S.

[@josefschmeau4682]

EL Dragon Which is even crazier !!!! It’s like ... the Free World wins the Cold War , so the college kids have decided to take lessons and graduate degrees from the losers 💥😡

[@Stret173]

yeah, loke te stupidity to see one step but ignore the second - what caused the ussr? if that remains you sill stare into a wall mubling for eternity "but human stupidity remains... dreams of utopia... do not dare to think things can be better... cos human stupidity remains..."

[@Stret173]

@@josefschmeau4682 AAHAHHAH FREE WORLD! Enjoy you slave labour clothes, chocolate and tech, mister freester! Go work at amazon or uber see how freedom works out

[@josefschmeau4682]

Stret173 allow me to make you an offer . I’ll foot the plane ticket bill if you agree to move to Venezuela . One way ticket of course 🤨 What do you think? A free ticket to your utopia , Nirvana Or what ever your current economic dream is 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@adamradziwill]

Kurapaty (Belarusian: Курапаты, IPA: [kuraˈpatɨ]) is a wooded area on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during the Great Purge by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. The exact count of victims is uncertain, as NKVD archives are classified in Belarus.[1] According to various sources the number of people who perished in Kurapaty is estimated in at least 30,000 people (according to attorney general of BSSR Tarnaŭski), up to 100,000 people (according to “Belarus” reference book),[1][2] from 102,000 to 250,000 people (according to the article by Zianon Pazniak in “Litaratura i mastactva” newspaper),[3][4] 250,000 people (according to Polish historian and professor of University of Wrocław Zdzisław Julian Winnicki),[5] and more (according to the British historian Norman Davies).[6] In 2004 Kurapaty mass graves were included in the register of the Cultural Properties of Belarus as a first-category cultural heritage.[7]

[@ryanphillips4218]

4 and half yrs late and still no third book and because of 55:31 I'm wondering if its cause Kotkin has so immersed himself he's gettng close to Ledgering himself with this work.

[@laetitiavisagie-gg6kk]

The book One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich was banned in South Africa under the suppression of communism Act - it was so ironic. The book was was unbanned in 1991 and at least one publisher made sure it came to our shores quickly

[@Frohicky1]

Terence McKenna interviews Harry Lime.

[@englishandthebeautyoflangu3610]

Cancer Ward is a masterful work. Set in the year of Stalin's death. The scenes in the streets describe the Soviet cities denuded of men. A lonely, tragic place. The contrast of the women in the ward, and then the patients who are a cross section of Soviet society. The main character returning from exile and imprisonment, the party man, the young engineer, all menaced by cancer. The cancer itself a metaphor for the disease of communism.

[@darrellroberson4401]

PLEASE CONSULT WITH MR. GERALD HOME

[@gosnellktn]

who is China's Solzhenitsyn?

[@SY-jq4yw]

None, either been killed or bought.

[@deroconnor4621]

Solzhenitzyn, let us remember was one of Putin's heroes I really liked his speech at Harvard and Peter Kreeft's commentary

[@murrayaronson3753]

He is one of Putin's heroes and it speaks well of him.

[@Canadian0217]

@@murrayaronson3753 Since when? During his KGB years? After?

[@johnburman966]

I gather from reading his writing was that he was a voice for friends who either did not survive or who were silent. However one of these survivor friends connected to his Christian conversion in the camps and living in Paris, was not impressed by his writing.

[@TheShangdi]

Christine Natalia Naibaho bekerja menjalankan zakat di Masjid Pink Malaysia.

[@sorenlegoff]

Godamn he sounds like Joe Pesci

[@superlyger]

He looks like joes Pesci.

[@adama7752]

Joe Pesci sounds like him.

[@corn_pop6082]

Good spot! I've listened to 4-5 talks by Kotkin since jumping in and reading his second volume on Stalin first, and loving it. I just couldn't spot where I had heard that voice before. You nailed it.

[@gvbrandolini]

Interessante.

[@lgude]

I was 11 when Stalin died and I was surprised at how much Edward R Murrow gave a positive account of Stalin's achievements. And further surprised of how much my father agreed with that assessment. I remember arguing because I had a negative view of Stalin, but I was only 11. Prof Kotikin's expiation of why Stalin will always be important in Russia and for his historical , not moral, importance for having won the biggest war in history make that childhood experience make sense to me now.

[@nataliaryabova6015]

The horrors of the Soviet Union are overestimated in Solzhenitsyn's works. When they were officially permitted many people started reading them. Some are still in school curriculum, but the attitude changed. Many researches based on archive documents showed there had been too many lies in them, or fiction, if you wish. The attitude of the majority here now is disgust. It's a pity books like those build up foreigners' idea of life in the Soviet Union. We understand that you have no sources of reliable information. As for Stalin, he changed life for millions of people. They became literate, they had guaranteed jobs and salaries, they had free housing, free medicine, free education. They were proud of their country where working people were the elite. They loved their government who made that possible. Millions of Soviet people cried when Stalin died, thousands came to his funeral. Of course, there were different people, there were dishonest and unjustifiably cruel people among executives on different levels. However, there haven't been so many happy people in the country ever before or ever since the years of Stalin's ruling. Maybe the 70-ies were more stable and prosperous, but people became less enthusiastic. They say, "time full of hardships produces strong people, time of well-being produces weak people". These weak and naive people ruined the country in the 90-ies. As for Mr Kotkin, he is a very reasonable man with his idea of the past based on available information and his view of the world and philosophy of life. Whether I share his position or not, I should admit it's much more balanced than the ones politicians lately have...

[@roberthundley]

Allies, esp US, won WWII. Read 3 Vol hist by nicholson

[@robfrancis7561]

The book that the Woke professors in British universities keep off the reading list.

[@carylhalfwassen8555]

Really?

[@robfrancis7561]

@@carylhalfwassen8555 gaslighting again Carly, the default of the Woke.

[@gusv8]

Love these clips. Don’t know anything about wing suits but I reckon you must be on the edge of a life ending mistake… go hard or go home 👍

[@michaelm6045]

I am still not convinced that Solzhenitsyn brings universal value to humanity beside his epic inside of life in Stalin's regime. That is how he will be read in generations to come, and this is his important and unique contribution.

[@tolyamochin4066]

В России этого лживого дурака Солженицына мало кто читает. В школах его точно не читают - учителям он надоел своим идиотизмом, а школьникам этот врун просто неинтересен, и у них нет ни малейшего желания читать его бредни.

[@terryhand]

I have tremendous respect for Stephen Kotkin. His biography of Stalin was an outstanding piece of research, with the added bonus of being wonderfully readable. However, I fail to see how Solzhenitsyn's Dostoevskian view of the Russians (i.e. Orthodox Christians) and Jews in Russia could be anything other than antisemitism.

[@alexanderkuptsov6117]

You guys in the West worship Solzhenitsyn for a very simple reason: His works and activism contributed immensely to the collapse of the Soviet Union. What your eye doesn't catch is that what happened after the collapse was no less disastrous for our nation that it had been before, and even worse in many aspects. But you obviously don't care about it because it's the collapse that you're really interested in and where you stop. And I don't blame you, who's not going to like the demise of their main competitor? What's funny is that the US is turning into a second Soviet Union and at a breakneck pace and is standing a good chance of falling into the same abyss as well.

[@Isuzu81]

But we didn't see the USSR as only a "competitor" to our country and government. It was a competitor against the spirit of mankind itself. Its demise was a giant leap for all who are susceptible to being dominated by bad ideas, i.e.everyone, for as long as we exist.

[@alexanderkuptsov6117]

@@Isuzu81 Since then the world has had many opportunities to see what country is the source of 'bad ideas' and it's definitely not the USSR. But my point was a bit different: hypocrisy. The West gives zero fs about how people lived in the USSR because, as I said, for millions of people the living standards after the collapse were abysmal and no country paid attention to it, except for maybe some humanitarian aid, which was utterly humiliating. The West tongue-kissed with Yeltsin and took no notice of how millions desperately tried to make ends meet on a daily basis, because that's the Russia the West has always wanted. Unsurprisingly, things went downhill between the West and Putin, because, without idolizing the latter, one can't but admit that under him things have improved significantly (certainly, with so much more to be done ahead).

[@Isuzu81]

@@alexanderkuptsov6117 The aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR was very disappointing to me and many in the west, but we all have our own countries that have to be our primary concern. Was there a culture of dependency on the government that had developed in the USSR during its 70 some odd years? That culture is what everyone has to fight against, inside their own countries. It's very hard to overcome.

[@alexanderkuptsov6117]

@@Isuzu81 >> but we all have our own countries that have to be our primary concern Sure, can't blame you for that and if your countries'd said that in a straightforward fashion, that would have been fair. >>Was there a culture of dependency on the government that had developed in the USSR during its 70 some odd years? I don't think so. It's not dependancy, it's division of labor and redistribution of duties. It's like saying that you depend on the ambulance or the police officers when you call 9-1-1 and that you should drift away from it and be able to solve medical or security issues on your own. The USSR was a very complex and a brand new type of society the West couldn't understand. What's more, Soviets didn't understand it either, Andropov, one of our General Secretaries, said that 'we don't know the society we live in'. It was definitely a social experiment which at some point got out of control, but it was not 100% dark as the Western propaganda has always portrayed it. By the way, it bore a lot of resemblance to the modern USA so again, I wouldn't write the USSR off because the Soviet experience may come in handy one day, with the proper analysis, of course.

[@marcusaurelius9123]

Try telling that to the 100s of thousands of dead victims of Stalin. The Russian people were incapable of creating a free productive incorruptible society. The Russian people seem to have a need to be led like sheep by corrupt monsters the psychopath Stalin & now the kleptocratic psychopath Putin. Compare Russia with the Baltic states..it's instructive

[@beirbua3968]

Why is it a bad thing, if it is true, that Solzhenitsyn was a nationalist and adherent of the Russian Orthodox Christian faith?

[@Sergiuss555]

Because there is no god and all religions are a lie?

[@coffeyjjj]

@@Sergiuss555 - *All* collectivist ideologies (e.g. Communism, Socialism, Marxism) are religions, too. Their god is the lie of *universal egalitarianism* ---a god of unsurpassed deceit, destructiveness, and inhuman evil.

[@syourke3]

Russian imperialism preceded 1917. The Russian Empire was brutally repressive toward smaller nations that it dominated. Slavic chauvinism and Russian imperialism went hand in hand.

[@Sergiuss555]

@@coffeyjjj It's quite a stretch though. A flawed ideology about social processes is much more excusable than a mythological thinking about physical phenomena. Simply because it's much harder to run an experiment and take measurements. Religions distort and make wrong statements about all domains of human knowledge.

[@Sergiuss555]

@@coffeyjjj my reasoning is simply based on epistemology and not utilitarianism. The number of people murdered under a certain doctrine is more or less irrelevant, unless the doctrine prescribes to do so, aka "kill infidels/apostates". And even in that case, the doctrine may (or may not) embrace the best descriptive statements about natural phenomena and be better in my eyes than other, more peaceful ones. As I understand it, egalitarianism is a concept from ethics, where rational analysis is hardly applicable. I don't see the term god easily mapped semantically onto collectivism. But I would agree that communism maps well to organized religion.

[@adamradziwill]

"Yevhen Sverstiuk, a Ukrainian writer and poet who was jailed as a political prisoner in the 1970s, says Solzhenitsyn played a key role in bolstering the opposition throughout the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine. But Sverstiuk says the author's political views took a turn for the worse in the mid-1970s."After receiving the Nobel Prize, Solzhenitsyn deteriorated -- he switched from the great challenge of combating the evil empire to Russian imperial issues...Russia's ethnic and religious minorities, too, took a dim view of Solzhenitsyn's calls for a Slavic revival based on Russian Orthodoxy. "It isn't customary in such moments to express anything but praise about the deceased, but some of his articles did have an element of xenophobia," says Armenian writer Vahram Martirosian. "Against the backdrop of a strongly negative attitude towards migrants, including Armenians, this only poured oil on the flames of Russian chauvinism in today's Russia." ...Solzhenitsyn in which he called for northern Kazakhstan to be incorporated into Russia. They demanded that the newspaper be banned in Kazakhstan, accusing it of violating their country's territorial integrity -- a charge backed by the Kazakh prosecutor-general, who described Solzhenitsyn's statement as a "gross intervention in the internal affairs of an independent state."...www.rferl.org/a/Solzhenitsyn_Leaves_Troubled_Legacy_Across_Former_Soviet_Union/1188876.html

[@arturosuarez-silverio5983]

Adam Radziwill Kotkin, not a professional literary critic but a cogent thinker, expresses some disappointment with “The First Circle” as a work of art. Whether or not Solzhenitsyn was a great literary stylist is not as significant to his legacy as the fact that he chronicled the horrors of the GULAG. It’s hard to argue for the benefits of the GULAG, but Kotkin makes it clear that some people do. Solzhenitsyn’s role seems to be to have driven the pros and cons of the GULAG from the list of topics that may be the subject of polite conversation. Apparently Solzhenitsyn brought the same earnestness or is thought by some to have brought the same sort of earnestness to his works on nationalism or pan-Slavism. These areas remain on the table as shown by the on-going Brexit dealings. It would be wrong, however, to equate the “nationalist” position with the pro-GULAG position. There’s no secret police carting off anyone to any brutal labor camp over the Brexit issue. I’m not an expert on Holodmor, but I read enough Soviet history to know that Ukrainians served at the highest levels of the Soviet government, including Andrei Grechko, an army commander who became Minister of Defense. For this reason I think that there’s reason to quarrel with the idea that Holodmor was perpetrated by non-Ukrainians. I also know that a similar genocide was perpetrated at the same time in Kazakhstan, where it’s given the name of Goloschekin Genotsid. This famine resulted in the death of almost 40 percent of ethnic Kazakhs. For this reason I would tend to agree with the proposition that the 1932-33 regime-implemented famine wasn’t limited to the Ukraine. The Lower Volga region of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic was also impacted. The targets of these manufactured famines were “kulaks,” who were basically peasants who refused to join state-mandated “worker collectives.” These famines were not designed to wipe out certain ethnic groups. They were designed to wipe out certain classes of people according to the way in which they worked. Noam Chomsky and perhaps others claim that capitalist control of the workplace surpasses anything that Stalin may have dreamed up. On this subject, Chomsky is wrong.

[@chrisdonohue1607]

@@arturosuarez-silverio5983 Thank you, 👍👍👍.

[@roc7880]

I had the same feeling after reading his works, that AS turned towards Russian centrism after denouncing Soviet utopia. I do know if that was xenophobia or not, but it is possible that AS looked at Communism and Marxism as foreign ideas and alien identities forced upon Russian by minorities such as Russian Jews, which were always blamed for everything what was wrong inside Russia or Soviet Union. Stalin himself started playing with deporting Soviet Jews in his later years and he blamed the Jewish commissars for the Ukrainian famine in the 30s. One of the thing I appreciate in Putin, despite his terrible actions, is that he is one of the few Russian leaders in history not contaminated by antisemitism.

[@frankalexanderheberlein1451]

By thinking that Stalin didn't have plans to conquer Western Europe and Germany and, by that, describing Stalin"s role in May June 1941 as pure passive, Kotkin's point of view is quite conservative or name it traditional, no Suvorov no Solonin, this dissapoints me as a German, and this not because I am looking for excuses for the role of my country then, but because I think Stalin's USSR is not as innocent as even US western narratives try to describe.

[@paulrevere2379]

Interesting point. Stalin and the entire soviet socialist system is a topic that leftist controlled institutions in the US do not want the public to see for what it was as the comparisons to current events and anti-freedom mandates make quite clear. One of their primary means of propaganda is to resurrect a bogeyman of white sepremecy, particularly the labeling of people as Nazis. Any truly significant remnants ceased to exist in the US many decades ago as all honest Americans know. Anyone who absorbs the daily left stream news is expected to think otherwise, and what an ugly thing to conjure up, especially when real freedoms are being repressed in the name of collective socialism.

[@jimmycricket7385]

There are some parallels with Julian Assange. An outspoken truth teller who fell foul of a repressive regime that couldn't censor his output. But of course, Solzhenitsyn was merely banished and Assange faces a lingering death behind bars for his exposure of American crimes.

[@robleahy5759]

Assange should slowly perish in a federal prison, with a patient Celtic guard who painstakingly explains again and again exactly what it is he has done which is offensive, until he just can't fail to understand. I know many prisoners and guards just like this. Sometimes it takes decades, but we have decades.

[@lukeappleberry827]

I don't get how people say Stephen sounds like Joe Pesci. He really doesn't.

[@Sapwolf]

Yes he does. However, it is not 100% the same as Pesci. But it sounds somewhat like Pesci (80%). I'm about to start Part I of his Stalin biography free....from the library.

[@davidrusen9938]

Yes, he does. And if Joe Pesci would stop talking about badaboom, budaBing in Brooklyn, and if he started talking about universal morals and geopolitics, then Pesci would sound like Professor Kotkin.

[@johncarroll772]

He sounds more like Joe Pesci than the real Joe Pesci