Stephen Kotkin- Paradoxes of Power Lecture- University of Pennsylvania Bookstore

2014 11 11

[@nedflanders7188]

I'm a huge Stephen Kotkin fan. I'm not in academia, just a layman that loves history. Thank you Nathan for your uploads, your channel has been one of the primary sources for Kotkin lectures

[@jhb1493]

How the heck were there empty seats here? He's such an interesting, engaging speaker, you'd really think there would be a crowd.

[@excelsior999]

If you're looking for a crowd, go to a Rap Concert.

[@TRamone01]

3rd volume soon I hope.

[@nathansyoutubeaccount]

This was made on a Wednesday daytime of a working week in the summer. You’ll notice it’s mostly gray hair in the audience. Everyone else is at work!

[@jackiwannapaint3042]

I have read a handful of bios of stalin including the Simon Montefiore book that I hold in some regard but Prof Kotkin adds a new dimension to the subject and I find it--and him--fascinating

[@roc7880]

before Hitler coming to power the term "fascist" referred only to the Italian version of state-corporatism and finance capital under Mussolini, so technically Stalin description was correct before '33.

[@joro8604]

Amazing speaker. Self-absorbed questioners. And Kotkin handles them well and the material.

[@josephsulimay7475]

stephen kotkin is the best.

[@robbie_]

Very interesting talk. Thanks for sharing.

[@kailenpiardi2721]

Kotkin is such a heavy hitter

[@monikakurlander9314]

Brilliant.

[@gggusc11]

Thanks for posting

[@arlieferguson3990]

Great questions from this non-academic audience.

[@gagamba9198]

_''I think a get your question_ *at this point* _.'_

[@H2oRiz]

Last question doesn't mean two more questions and never shutting up.

[@6663000]

You've got to admit that Harry Katz is a pretty funny name.

[@jackiwannapaint3042]

if i had teachers like this at the university i would have been phi beta kappa!

[@oddwad6290]

It appears like mostly all of humanity we're social creatures after all . Stalin may have needed humans for tasks , entertainment and occasional company , but he didn't have much empathy or love for anyone . Hence they were usually expendable when he was finished using them ? Psychopathic traits along with a love of power , control and animal cunning . Most serial killers have home lives that aren't well documented either , but usually turn out to be horrific . See Hitler ?

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Some dreadful questions in this one, but the opening half is very good.

[@Baczkowa78]

What an idiotic first question! People just don’t have a stop button.

[@lonewolf115]

39:10

[@H2oRiz]

I'd hate to have him in my family, to know him, or to have him work next to me in a cubical. He kept talking as if he was an expert but who knows, maybe he's one of the Penn State professors that helped him and secretly wrote the book for him.

[@Ynotnow9900]

@@H2oRiz nothing in the world worse than a smug fat man

[@roc7880]

I know. same feeling here of duh

[@nedflanders7188]

Rambling, idiotic nonsense. Also, he didn't have a real question, he just wanted to talk and ramble

[@edward9862]

Where, O' Where is Professor Kotkin? We could certainly hear his expertise of Russia, in the light of recent events!!!

[@lucay2222]

He's been around in podcasts talking about Putin and so on.

[@gardens4me966]

He's been on two Hoover Institute webcasts; 5 questions for Stephen Kotkin and then 5 more questions for Stephen Kotkin. I have learned so much from him.

[@schusterlehrling]

The boarder to Canada is anything but a natural boarder. And actually not many countries have stable "natural" boarders. So I don't take this point at all.

[@karlkuzmin4921]

Joe! Joe pesci

[@robertfunesti9911]

Smartfella

[@jps0117]

So you think Stephen Kotkin is here to amuse you... like he's a clown?

[@gofar5185]

watching many shows on stalin specially this lecture of yours makes me think lenin group of strategists may also have talent spotted mao & great comrades... to strengthen an ally for russia that is marginalized by europe... how maoist teachers reached out around the asean lands is how wandering muskowa kalashnikovs are known by storytelling asean ethnic kids in the 1960s & 1970s... details of russia-stalin in global media makes me relate mao & stalin... the rumors in some students that mao seems to see stalin as his elder brother... death of stalin...

[@nedflanders7188]

Your comment was as useful as the first question in the video

[@nedflanders7188]

"the rumors in some students that mao seems to see stalin as his elder brother" Dude, what? Some highschoolers in Maoist China were whispering that Mao really liked Stalin? Just...what?

[@element7795]

Historians love to talk about working in the archives ....

[@roc7880]

sounds easy, but it's tough believe me. all those papers with dust and mold, wet pages, missing pages, bad writing.....

[@nedflanders7188]

I mean, he spent years in there, it'd be weird if they didn't talk about it

[@Johnconno]

Stalin claimed his parents were a Carpenter and a Virgin.

[@gofar5185]

in one lecture of universal law of order & disorder of some wanderung china scholars, it was said, corrupted dynasties caused the emergence of extraordinary talents... that fixes the tilted scale of order & disorder... one is napoleon of france... another is lenin of russia... curiosity of audience in the lecture led to the limitations of lenin... lenin & company knew they dont exactly know how to organize a populous people of russia... they are simply a group of strategists with a minimal number of shadow warriors( china scholars term to their spine chilling imagination of the ability of the muskowa/lenin to mobilize a populous people)... it was then said, lenin strategists decided talent spotting... one was stalin who was put in a place conducive to his training( maybe the seminary that you mentioned stalin was)... this is the genuity of lenin & fellow strategists... spotting talents in the countrysides... never discussed why no extraordinary talent spotted in workers/laborers... so to say that lenin had a last ditch of dictation seems not possible...bcoz lenin & fellow strategists gave stalin the command word of the unknown lenin force( china scholars termed shadow warriors of russia-lenin)... (listeners ddnt want to know more about the abilities of shadow warriors... later related stories of stories by, that shadow warriors are like the ninja of japan... later university days, the english term, intelligence network... it was related that way)... before lenin announced stalin, the responsibility to protect russia from the never disappearing interest of europe to devour russia and the command word for the unknown force was given to stalin... and the out of spotlight grandmasters supporting lenin gave their blessings to stalin... verbally passed stories bcoz it is a practice of asean students to know the beginning of a knowledge being spoken... talkers have to say, there is this book marx practiced by lenin in muskowa, continued by stalin & mao was there in china... by FATE met... asean tongue can hardly say soviet russia america... muskowa washington are much easier uttered... stalin was accepted by asean lecturers as the legitimate successor of lenin to save russia against the never disappearing interest of europe orvmarginalization of europe against russia... in asean scholars words, russia is european discriminted by its kins(europe)... wandering asean maoist teachers disappeared in the 1980s... they said it is up to the current generation to discern their world...

[@nedflanders7188]

This made literally no sense

[@gofar5185]

it was a question by maoist students about justification of ccp body in the tiananmen square... kill one to save one thousand... watching your collected details on stalin makes me relate this mao-ccp justification of tiananmen square, maybe mao learned from stalin.... the kill one to save one thousand...

[@nedflanders7188]

Mao was dead when Tianamen happened, he had been dead for 15 years at that point The decision to have the students crushed was made my Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader. Deng was a great leader and he saved the CCP from the Soviet Union's fate - however, Tianamen was his worst mistake, and it has greatly stained his legacy

[@pieterviljoen1257]

It is Stephen Kotkins perspective !!

[@nedflanders7188]

How so? He is reporting what he saw and read in the Soviet's own archive. Just because you wore a beret in college and went to leftist/communist lectures doesn't mean Kotkin is wrong and you're right.

[@gardens4me966]

@@nedflanders7188 He says pointedly, in every lecture (and I've listened to them all) that he only is interested in original sources, not heresay. The amount of research is astounding.

[@gofar5185]

there was germs of thoughts expressed among early asean maoist students why mao speak about stalin like his elder brother... it was rumored that it was stalin intelligence body that reached to mao about america-korea-france-vietnam-india-tibet... mao & close comrades understand russian but never spoke in public... mao simply said marx said languages are weapons of a nation... this reminds me how people say there is no freedom in communism/socialism... as far as i know, CONVERT(as used by christianity) is not used in the teachings of LORD BUDDHA & maoist lectures... they lecture per request of any group of storytellers & they leave...

[@deborahdean8867]

Communists, Maoist and Marx, both utilized conversion. Being a faithful CONVERT to communism and nationalism were required for survival .

[@dancroitoru364]

So Kotkin's thesis is that Stalin inherited from Lenin the impossible mission of creating socialism in a collapsing state and while trying to apply the Marxist dogma he understood that his fellow party members, the 'revolutionary' elite, are just a bunch of idealistic imbeciles. As the situation worsened, he tested his intuition by feigning resignations and seeing time and again how impotent they were in assuming the responsibility of the situation. He also realized that should he revert to a midway softer approach of restoring the old state to save the economy he'd be replaced in no time but as long as the situation was dire they wanted him to be the sole bearer of the atrocities involved in continuing with the socialist revolution. And so he did without any restraint ...

[@2paulcoyle]

I thought Hitler always denied he, the Nazi party, Nazi ideology were fascist. And before Barbarossa, Stalin and Soviet Union refered to Hitler, as Hitler did himself, as Socialist. It was only after Hitler's attack that Soviet Propaganda relabled Hitler and the Nazis as fascists. Because Socialist never attacked each other. Since Hitler attacked, he must not be Socialist. Has to be.

[@SorceressWitch]

"What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses, on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions. Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie and mortal enemies of socialism, represent themselves to the masses as "Socialists," and depict their accession to power as a "revolution"? Because they try to exploit the faith in revolution and the urge towards socialism that lives in the hearts of the mass of working people in Germany." Georgi Dimitrov (leader of the Comintern) 1935 Before Barbarossa. "It is not surprising that fascism has now become the most fashionable commodity among war-mongering bourgeois politicians. I am referring not only to fascism in general, but, primarily, to fascism of the German type, which is wrongly called national-socialism-wrongly because the most searching examination will fail to reveal even an atom of socialism in it." Stalin 1934 way before operation Barbarossa. "Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists. Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic. We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national. We demand the fulfilment of the just claims of the productive classes by the state on the basis of race solidarity. To us state and race are one." Hitler 1923 He is admitting to wanting to take the term socialism away from socialists and makes up his own definition of it. I don't know what school you go to but that cannot be from history class. Because I have never heard these claims from historians. Whoever you got your information from is giving false history. Which sounds like historical revisionism rather than actual history. You can also look at who Hitler supported in the Spanish civil war. Stalin supported the republicans who were made up of liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists. Hitler supported the nationalists who were made up of conservatives, monarchists, fascists, catholic nationalists. Kotkin talks about Hitler in his second book, you should read that. Kotkin did a lot of research for his books, they're long but detailed.

[@lucay2222]

I don't think the Soviets ever referred to Hitler as a socialist.

[@atulvaibhav5376]

​@@lucay2222 They did for a time.

[@highpriority4015]

Wrong audience

[@sergeifunt5281]

Stalin number 1 all time long live the greatest ever STALIN

[@nedflanders7188]

Stalin was number one in murdering people and terrorizing everyone in his own country Also, long live Stalin, a guy that's been dead for 70 years? What?

[@deborahdean8867]

Stalin was a vicious pig.

[@celloswiss]

😂

[@krzysztofsobolewski3749]

He doesn’t answer questions about Russian society

[@MGHarris]

He wrote 200 pages about Russian history and society in the book. If he gave a full answer there'd be no time for other questions.

[@monikakurlander9314]

Let's see the bigger picture here, please.

[@pieterviljoen1257]

Krzysztof sobolewski He operates of stereotypes 🤷‍♂️

[@AgendaFiles]

@@MGHarris 2,000 pages for Vol. 1 and 2

[@nedflanders7188]

Are you talking about the first question he got? Because that wasn't a question, it was an insane person's rant

[@gofar5185]

kindly allow me... japan samurai has already been attacking china border villages & korea shoreline tribes as pirates(english word)... long before the 18th century portugal france dutch britain then america after the america civil war... the colonialist showing up in japan shores taught & sold japan guns cannons & battleships... and other detonating fire balls that japan learned to copy & improve according to their aim of invasions to the korea & china & other asean country that they can reach...

[@nedflanders7188]

What? Dude, this is a bizarre and weird rant. Are you the guy that asked the first question in the video?