Stephen Kotkin, "Stalin: Volume I"

In the first volume of a planned three-volume life, Kotkin, Princeton history professor and acting director of the university’s Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies program, and Hoover Institution research fellow, shows his subject’s evolution from one-time seminarian to ruthless dictator, linking the man’s traits-paranoia, brutality-to those of both imperial Russia and the Bolshevik power structure.
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[@ronnestman4696]

Kotkin is my new addiction. Love listening to him lecture.

[@inappropriatern8060]

Same, friend. Same. Volume 3 out in two weeks!!

[@inappropriatern8060]

....and probably a bunch of new lectures!

[@bobanrajowic]

@@inappropriatern8060 where is it?

[@ingenuity168]

Me too

[@nationradical]

WHEN/WHERE IS IT COMING OUT!

He wears his considerable knowledge lightly and is a riveting speaker.

@Min Tin So you were pals with Uncle Joe and experienced him directly or you lived 50 years in the USSR!

[@excellentcomment]

So well said. Kotkin's erudition is matched only by his light touch and charming clarity. And humor. And humility. ❤

[@TalkernateHistory]

He's a lot more funny and charming than I would have expected. I really really like the way he speaks

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

Yes yes yes ❤ love from Sweden

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

Pity he’s done good work debunking certain anti Stalin myths then goes ahead and lies to an audience with the Stalin walking lie!

[@vincesoder3284]

Bookstore Joe Pesci

[@januszmlynarcz3348]

Talkernate History wrrefer

[@bikeandsee1647]

Yeap, certainly Mr Kotkin is a sophisticated advocate of Imperialism, but only in his manners. Yet his basic assertion that Stalin equals Communism, or Communism is Stalin, is not new at all, is the most banal one, it is almost a pity for his monumental effort. Up to a point Mr Kotkin is right, but only up to a point. Certainly Stalin was a Bolshevik and as such his violent modus operandi falls within this parameter. Indeed Stalin answered to the needs of the Soviet Revolution, but it is a mistake to assume that Stalin's bloody behavior was the only possible one in front of the Revolution problems. This mistake is called "fatalism", a sort of unilateral historical determinism by which history must follow only one specific path.

[@henryrusch9475]

Absolutely remarkable. Without doubt, Stephen Kotkin is one the great historians of our, perhaps all, times because of his devotion to archival sources, his resistance to second hand information, and therefore his determination to analyze history from all sides and come forward to wherever the truth, as he knows it at that moment, may lead. Thank you for making this talk, and many others, available on You Tube.

[@grumpyoldman8661]

A.J.P. Taylor (the great British historian) wrote that "the best history is when the reader turns the pages wanting to know what happens next". Stephen Kotkin easily meets that criteria. (UK)

[@ileanarollason6401]

AJP Taylor was a great historian indeed, Kotkin is NOT.

[@amcespana2150]

British historian is an oxymoron, better say British forger, British mercenary or British pirate

[@Rakett1swagete]

​@@ileanarollason6401why so?

[@johnniebee4328]

he's got a good sense of humor, refreshing to see in this type of lecture

[@paulleverton9569]

This guy's hilarious. I don't know how his students listen to his lectures without cracking up.

[@svendbosanvovski4241]

Its not just a monumental work, but certainly a candidate for the best biography ever written and we are only now at volume 2. He brilliantly contextualises Stalin, acknowledging his achievements and his frightening brutality. Waiting for volume 3 is like waiting for the next season of Game of Thrones. It's utterly enthralling.

[@fizywig]

Apparently, historians who have checked his sources find it to be a rather poor work

[@jaik195701]

@@fizywig "historians" please cite

[@didymussumydid9726]

@Larson Oppenheimer lmao, Grover "In forty years of research I haven't found evidence of a single crime committed by Stalin" Furr

[@Stewiehleba]

@Daniel Grover Furr.

[@Stewiehleba]

@@didymussumydid9726 Do you care to actually refute the evidence Furr produces, or are you just bullshitting?

[@rogerwilco4397]

Kotkin knows his stuff. He also does the best Joe Pesci impression this side of Jim Bruer.

[@AvenRadcliffe]

Lol😂

[@martinrios4748]

Omg ur right

[@piushalg8175]

He keeps telling the audience what it doesn't really want to hear about Stalin. It's amazing.

[@crazymulgogi]

And what is it that they don't want to hear?

[@piushalg8175]

@@crazymulgogi That he became the man he was out of his own decisions and that he performed his deeds because of the convictions he chose, and not because of his upbringing etc.

[@garretttedeman]

Very good stuff. A lot of background & context on important history.

[@jcrios1917]

"Mao basically spits in Khrushchev's face". Professor Kotkin

[@grumpyoldman8661]

This is a great historian. (UK)

[@Ronbo710]

Amen Sir. His books are incredible too. They are just as captivating as his lectures.

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

Hmm he claims Stalin isn’t on camera walking amongst other lies he spews

[@rollo131]

I think of Breaking Bad in connection with Stalin. Was Walter White always fated to become a mendacious, power mad killer? There are hints throughout the show that he had a difficult childhood, that he holds deep resentments against certain people from his early life, but in the end that was not the explanation. It was the business of creating and sustaining a meth empire that made it necessary to rule with an iron fist, to manipulate people, to be ruthless, to eliminate any obstacles in the way. So it is, at Kotkin says, with Stalin. It wasn’t the beatings he received from his father or any other singular episode that set him on the path to becoming a murderous tyrant. It was the circumstances involved in running a regime, a dictatorship, a communist revolution in Russia of the early twentieth century, that brought it out of him.

[@sillygoose9791]

Idealism and opportunism are handmaidens when it comes to putting someone on a path. The way the world is will change how you see the world and vica versa. Also; the First World War was Walter getting cancer, the Civil War is Walt meeting and fighting Tuco, the accumulation of power as General Secretary was Walt working with Gus, the exile of Trotsky is the death of Gus, the killing of Mike and his men in the prison was collectivization/ great terror. Hell, they both even fight Nazis at the end. It's comforting to find another Breaking Bad/ Soviet history fan in the wild, a niche crossover to be sure.

[@rollo131]

@@sillygoose9791 And Stephen Kotkin is Vince Gilligan.

[@1080lights]

That's a specious comparison. The show makes it pretty clear that Walter's drive comes quite clearly from his feeling that he was a brilliant man destined for great things and the world took it from him.

[@thomasjorge4734]

Imagine, getting into a NYC taxi-cab and have the driver start talking like this? The only response: Take me to L.A.

[@analitykiemzycia5490]

Prof. Kotkin is not only a great author. He's the best expert on Stalin. besides that, as seen here, he's a versatile guy with humour. We are very lucky to have him. He's world class. He is a giant amongst men.

[@jetpromys]

This is such a great lecture series, I've watched it several times. As many have said, I love Kotkin's humor and insights.

[@DavidErdody]

This video introduced me to Kotkin. Thank you P&P!

[@ileanarollason6401]

Don't let yourself captured by Kotkin's toxic propaganda.

[@jakebarnes28]

I heard a scholar say once, with regards to Saddam Hussein, "Is Iraq the way it is because of Saddam, or is Saddam the way he is because of Iraq?" I think one could ask the same thing about Russia and Stalin.

[@unknowable2432]

Sounds like an apologist.

[@TawsifEC]

Definitely adding these books to my wish list.

[@chantillylee]

I have just discovered Professor Kotkin, wonderful! My new favorite.

[@martinskyttefernandes5882]

The greatest historian and one of the most important scientists of our time. No less, Maybe more. Kotkin is a Voice of critical reason THAT remins U.S. ALL THAT ALL american arent hating Russia.

[@Jere616]

fascinating presentation

[@Fonzwav]

Thank You

[@brokenocean4465]

that was awesome

[@alcoholfree6381]

Kotkin is amazing! I’m not in his league but as a person takes a subject and just studies the heck out of it, such as he has done, so many insights become available. Kotkin does it over and over; the true fruits of scholarship. I’ve watched this several times and have started reading his first volume on Stalin. It’s a lot of fun!

[@StellarFella]

His second volume is now available. Great reflective and eloquent intellect.

[@nationradical]

Can’t wait for the third!

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

LOVE YOU ❤

[@fja4301]

wow SK is so very good a genius at writing and presenting. At first I thought his voice was hard to listen to but soon i could not stop listening to him. a truly amazing historian that should be in Bidnes cabinet or at least on Biden's speed dial

[@mac2105]

I just noticed what "wrap your head around" means literally and I'm shocked

[@zaffarjawaid2033]

Kotkin is brilliant in simplifying the complex phenomenon of WW2, cold war, totalitarian USSR, and a gold standard portrait and power of dictator Joseph Stalin.

[@jeffreysilverman3633]

Kotkin is the Master Source for anything Stalin related!

[@frod043]

would have liked to have been in his classes when he was teaching

[@davidbolen8982]

Yea, dude rocks

[@IskalkaQuest2010]

So important to have a book based on actual documents.

[@ileanarollason6401]

There are books based on documents (UCLA), even though Kotkin is shamessly manipulating and the facts and their causes and consequences. He shamelesslessy intoxicates.

[@maximusstirnimus5210]

@@ileanarollason6401 Intoxicates?

[@ileanarollason6401]

@@maximusstirnimus5210 YOU are intoxicated & lack a minimum of critical spirit & readings. Contrary to Kotkin the impostor, I have informed myself. Conclusions : 1. Khrouschev is the author of "Stalin's" crimes în Ukraine. Read Khrouschev's Memories, where is very proud of his ""exploits" : put of 38 members of the Central Comittee in Ukraina at Khrouschev's arrival there, 37 were dead aflter a year. As to the "goulags": read about innumerable wars between Poland (or the Republic of the 2 Nations, Poland + today's Lituania) & rhe rest of the Eastern Europe & Russia. Horrible relationships between Poland -USSR between WW1- WW2. Hardly restaured in 1919, Poland was at war with Russia. The Siberian gulags being full of Prometheist indoctrinated Polish officers. I SO INCITE YOU READING ABOUT PROMETHEISM before starting blaming Russia or Stalin. Leaving alone the fact that the goulags were VILLAGES. Populated for centuries by the local tribes & nations. Pretending that living in a POPULATED VILLAGE among THE LOCAL PEOPLE was a "purge" = one of the worst intoxications in the world history. Author(s): Robert Conquest (who did not speak Russian, did not read any document, admitted being told fairy tales by immigrants and lately recognized his exagerations) or Anna Appelbaum, Sikorski's wife. If you do not know who Sikorski is, I urge you read about PROMETHEISM, which is as horrible as nazism.

[@unknowable2432]

@@ileanarollason6401 seek help. Your "research methods" and "facts" are deeply flawed. Leaving you with absurd conclusions.

[@ileanarollason6401]

Kotkin INVENTS. Documents DO NOT exist, for him. Only Conquest, an excellent US propagandist, does. Kotkin being nothing else but a CIA agent. If you want real historians referring to real documents, read the UCLA sovietologists (the only ones who read Russian & have studied Russian & Soviet archives), not infamous Conquest or Kotkin.

[@george1la]

He never misses a stroke. Unlike most, he has done the hard work and it shows. Read his two volumes on Stalin and you will understand from the beginning it is serious and no funny business.

[@barumbadum]

I need to read these books...asap

[@ingenuity168]

To be great, one has to be obsessed and passionate .

[@anng.4542]

Thank you for posting this presentation. I have just discovered Dr Kotkin, thanks to the Hoover Institution channel, but was looking for a talk on the early part of Stalin's life. I really enjoyed how much time was set aside for questions, and especially how Dr Kotkin addressed the young audience member who believes that Stalin's aims and projects were merely about "social control", but don't represent "real communism". Amazing how long the dream of the perfect society persists, even in those far too young to remember the terrifying realities of the USSR.

[@takerdust]

Same. Hoover Institute also introduced Kotkin to me.

[@mikemurray2027]

It is the terrifying realities of our current society that gives hope to each new generation that something better can be built.

[@amber40494]

I've got goosebumps from kotkins talk!

[@TastyBurgerFilms]

44:10 and now, a question from Microsoft Sam

[@TheFrankHuda]

He's married to Siri and has a daughter, Alexa.

[@nirajathawale5000]

😹😹😹😹 I lmaoo 🤣

[@diskette]

I love your bookstore!

[@sillygoose9791]

Stalin, for all his ends justifying the means, in his drive for eventual communism, and his clear sociopathy, had to have felt his sins crawling on his back. If not the sins on his back, the feeling that no one really trusted him. He held life and death power in his hands, and showed that he didn't care if that power slipped and others paid the price. Everyone had to know the cost collectivization took. No one was left unscathed. 60 - 80% of the Soviet Union starved to death or near death. Kotkin in part 2 argues that the terror was used to break his inner circle, reduce them to minions. It drove one to suicide at least. Was it that Stalin saw the breaking power of the famine, an unintended side effect of collectivization, and seek to purposefully put the boot down? Stomp on a neck long enough, you're thanked for eventually letting them breathe. I think the Terror was a deliberate act to enslave Eurasia once and for all, a lesson Stalin learned from his experiments with his power. In the book as well, Stalin, as recorded by his daughter's nanny, spoke at least twice on the 'need of a Tsar' in Russia. Stalin, in the state atheist Soviet Union, could not rule by the divine right of kings, but could forge his own divinity through lead and leather. Who can argue with the man who can, and probably will, have your whole village deported to concentration camps in Siberia for being Kulak henchmen? And do it by the stroke of not a pen, but a simple colored pencil.

[@ryanphillips4218]

I REALLY want a round table at the Hoover Institute, moderated by Peter Robinson of course, with him, Dikotter, VDH, and Naimark!!!!

[@ChrisMartin-tk4dh]

I'm laughing at all his jokes and the audience looks like they are there and against their will and they find him insufferable.

[@rainblaze.]

Chris Martin What? ..You find him funny? What the *FCK* !! do you find so fckn funny about him?? ... what? tell me ? does he amoose you?

[@movement2contact]

@@rainblaze. your grammar sure amuses me...

[@rainblaze.]

movement2contact so you didn't get the refrence?.... Fairnuff

[@movement2contact]

@@rainblaze. No. tell me ?

[@rainblaze.]

movement2contact the "joke" was. Kotkin sounds exactly like joe pesci whose most famous for the "you find me funny"? rotine he does in the film "goodfellows". But i guess if you have to explain it. It loses its effect

[@kingcobra7565]

Great lecture. Thank you Professor Kotkin.

[@mirrorblue100]

Great presentation - thanks.

[@Unknown-th8hx]

I hope this is good

[@excellentcomment]

Only 177k views?! And I've watched this one 150k times myself. ❤

[@nataliatarnovsky6997]

Gran escritor!!!!🤝❤🖤❤

[@6663000]

Here on KZbin I've watched Stephen Kotkin give about ten different versions of these presentations about his books and they're always great. 36:45 This guy has been in attendance for almost all of them and he always asks questions. Surely Kotkin must recognize him each time, I wonder why he doesn't address it? Does anyone know who he is?

[@temax]

Stephen Kotkin is amazing. Finally nuance applied to Soviet Union.

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

And yet he still gets a lot wrong and still felt the need to lie

[@06alepea1]

@@JohnKobaRuddy what did he lie about?

[@fuckfannyfiddlefart]

It's very hard with the anti free speech McCarthyism, meanwhile Americans remember JFK fondly even thought he nearly killed us all for political advantage and we are ONLY ALIVE TODAY because of the Soviets!

[@kreek22]

@@fuckfannyfiddlefart The USSR sucked so bad it killed itself in despair.

[@kreek22]

@@JohnKobaRuddy He exaggerated the problems of the Czarist regime.

[@pineapplesandthegovernment6522]

So great to hear a smart guy dismantle the 'he had a difficult childhood' line. It's usually lazy thinking even to explain normal people. To explain exceptional people, it's just embarrassing.

[@sadhusadhu4237]

Thank you very much for your dedications to history of the world and the political processes or styles of influence and rules. Your talks have taught me so much. I like to hear your opinion on “ can American resist the lure of totalitarian style governing now that it has the technical capacity to rule it’s people, namely AI and mass surveillance apparatus

[@jakebarnes28]

Even if we're being surveilled, what would the folks doing the suveilling do with what they see? Does our Anglo-English legal system, and traditions have any effect? You and I are willingly engaging in the surveillance apparatus (KZbin, Facebook, etc.?). The Russian tradition and the American tradition are very different. Does this matter?

[@veeekin.996casterman9]

lol ! I have the Rodin book that is over his right shoulder.

[@shaunlanighan813]

I now see Stalin in four dimensions

[@darkworld9850]

10:30 The environment shapes the person.

[@diaryofanaddict9637]

Joe pesci's younger brother made the right choice leaving the mob to start giving lectures about stalin.

[@fanwang6255]

Amazing lecture.

[@chefantoniogiovanni209]

Tough crowd

[@Shapeguydude]

The parental abuse part is a great bit

[@BunnyMan456]

I didn’t know Rupert Pupkin wrote books.

[@davis302]

This is great

[@darrellroberson4401]

PLEASE CONSULT WITH MR. GERALD HOME

[@xxxs8309]

Great insight

[@kingbee1971]

I wonder what or who caused Stalin to turn away from serving God in his youth to becoming a revolutionary for 20 years before 1917. Stalin is a fascinating villain. Kotkin's best work.

[@sillygoose9791]

Look at the world around him. You have the church being a pillar of the regime that keeps down his nationality and rights as a human being. The seminary where Stalin sang and studied, also forbade him from speaking Georgian, in Georgia. He finds Darwin, who offers a different explanation for how the world came to be; and Marx, who offered to the poor toiling masses a different way in world the world could be. Stalin the young idealist would surely grasp these ideas more tightly than the totem that implored him to simply maintain tradition and abide his caste and station. Someone Stalin got it into his head that if he threw enough bodies at Russia social justice would spring forth. A disgusting extension of the ends justifying the means. Marxism offered a way out. While it turned out to be more an opiate of the masses than what Marx tried to call out with such a phrase, communism is a pipe dream a lot of disenfranchised people still throw the Bible out for, and for less noble reasons.

[@achtet7480]

@@sillygoose9791 Good answer.

[@hardheadjarhead]

The book is very readable. I’m enjoying it!

[@enriquepuerto7146]

My grandad fought in the Spanish civil war and apparently the Russian equipment was faulty AF. Most of the guns didn’t fire, so if that’s “top” Russian technology then what does their average stuff looks like.

[@nataliatarnovsky6997]

Hola !!! 🕵️‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙍‍♀️

[@antoinelavoisier9784]

Sad that such lectures do not attract young people

[@Drunkwithsuccess]

Totally, same with Montefiore and Brent. They all agree these Soviet monsters were not madmen but total loyalists to the cause to monopoly of the Soviet state.

[@corn_pop6082]

I went right into the second volume in early Dec. 2019. Will hit that first volume. But this second volume is fascinating. I was a bit disappointed in the collectivization in that the author didn't really portray the horror from the peasant view, but my goodness, when he gets into the Great Terror, the book is mesmerizing. Stalin would invite the next high official to be arrested and executed, often handing him a high medal, a new dacha and share a fantastic meal, together with the officials who had followed Stalin's orders to build a case against him. Just getting into the third part of the Hitler-Stalin duet. The detail is intense but wonderful. Get these books if Russian history or the evil of Stalin fascinate you.

[@Stewiehleba]

Or get Grover Furr's refutation of those books if you actually care about the real history.

[@jeffreysteelman8583]

@@Stewiehleba what is this that you speak of?

[@Stewiehleba]

@@jeffreysteelman8583 kind of obvious.

[@alvarogines6788]

Joe pesci suddenly knows about russia

[@malvolio01]

I've said it before... he's an articulate Joe Pesci.

[@electricdreams8237]

Just don't be late with getting his drinks...

[@malvolio01]

Electric Dreams and don’t laugh at his jokes.

[@sld1776]

He has lost a lot of weight. Doesn't look like Joe Pesci anymore.

[@jacksonlamme]

at 47:10 that was pretty funny.

[@LeftistUprising]

His knowledge base is amazing!!!!

[@nataliatarnovsky6997]

🏃‍♀️Soviet Unión.. Un cariño a EEUU y a este escritor tan respetuoso.

[@johnnyscifi]

You sure Menzhinsky wasnt Felix Dzherzhinsky?

[@AdamIndikt]

He succeeded Dzerzhinsky, who founded the tcheka and OGPU. Dzerzhinsky died in 1926.

[@rachelshengjie7847]

Very impressive for Stalin push to collective farm.That’s the same as Peter the Great built the Petersburg

[@Ronbo710]

Finally a professor that *KNOWS* the truth about communism .

[@enri447]

Impressive man

[@arthurselikoff5653]

Some consider trying to explain an evil person as being an apologist for him. Kotkin, however, calls collectivization the great crime with millions of deaths. Also, this is the first volume. From what I've heard Kotkin say, he does not credit Stalin with any ideological purpose in the terror of the 1930s, which is in the next book.

[@synon9m]

Did you listen to this presentation? Stalin did indeed have an ideological purpose.

[@briteness]

@@synon9m , Kotkin does not discuss Stalin's massive purges of the 30s here. It is, in fact, Kotkin's position that these purges are very difficult to understand, even within Stalin's ideological framework. An interview he did at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, which can be found on youtube, goes into this at length, although I have not read Volume 2 myself yet. Perhaps this could be seen as a weak point in Kotkin's view that Stalin, far from being free of ideology-free in practice, was largely driven by his idealistic Marxist ideology. In any event, it at least seems like Kotkin is honest, not trying to force his predetermined positions onto the evidence.

[@mikefay5698]

Yum's can't wait!

[@alanpennie8013]

@@briteness The Great Terror really is hard to explain, and I don't believe any historian has explained it satisfactorily.

[@morgan8599]

"...Are we done?" -- great ending 🤣 Listen, the guy has shit to do, get out of his way.

[@unknowable2432]

I always love when amateurs in the audience believe they know more than the historian. I'm not saying historians infallible. But it's absurd to be so close minded

[@lallen4999]

He's got a Slavic accent.He is not originally from US

[@zaq1zaq2zaq3]

Simply sounds like he's from New York.

[@ArendJanV]

Joe Pesci has become a professor? Great talk!

[@elgatopage]

Joe Pesci is my favorite historian

[@gracewoodard9134]

Good one

[@KrisM189]

Kotkin is great

[@yaakovkrakowich4563]

If Joe Pesci became an academic 😂

[@mikemurray2027]

It wasn't a personal dictatorship. It was, at least in the minds of the communists, a 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. Which come from Marx.

[@kreek22]

"the minds of the communists"? No such thing.

[@mikemurray2027]

@@kreek22 this is the problem with anti-communist 'historians'. They have no sense of historical objectivity, just a keen desire to condemn. It's fairly obvious why this aspect of history attracts liars and extremists, and also why people like Kotkin do so much to please them.

[@rdallas81]

Stalin was only Stalin because civilians did without asking questions. Same for Hitler. Neither would have been either without the participation of the people.

[@nataliatarnovsky6997]

🏃‍♀️❤🖤❤

[@virtualyogaschool]

5:55 agree with the opinion of the author who has studied the issue for many years

[@alexander3543]

Forgot about Stalin being a poet and his poems being published in Georgian ABCs to this day, and about his personal library in Kremlin consisting of 50,000 volumes

[@StephenPribut]

His poems and publication are first mentioned on page 33 of the first volume which runs to nearly 950 pages.

[@jackiwannapaint3042]

If I had teachers like this at the university I would have been phi beta kappa

[@roc7880]

I absorb every of his words. But half of the audience looks like have been dragged by the other half to this lecture.

[@ldy2182]

P&P is a left cultural institution in DC. so are its audiences. I doubt they would invite independent thinkers like Dr. Kotkin nowadays. Five years ago they were more tolerant.

[@MrChet407]

What I like about Kotkin is that he doesn't give off a prick vibe.

[@AJayQDR]

Amazing, Joe Pesci is talking over an hour and not even one swearing.

[@laza6141]

he's a funny guy.

[@BronzeBullBalls]

'Now go home and get your fucking paint brushes!.' Stalin to Hitler in 1943

[@laza6141]

@@BronzeBullBalls Hitler never had the making of the varsity dictator.

[@psSubstratum]

Is he there to fucking amuse you??

[@unknowable2432]

@@laza6141 too many drugs.

[@dramatic_escape]

27:47 "What they do say, however, is 'We can't do it. We can't win. We can't succeed. We'll ruin everything. We'll destroy everything...'" "so Stalin does it anyway..."

[@fuckfannyfiddlefart]

Cowards hate effort!

[@jakebarnes28]

@@fuckfannyfiddlefart that's why I call them "Republican'ts"

[@akashs8819]

This was not germany, it EU vs ussr and EU got hammered in the war. EU population is four times the russian population.

[@awatsycamorefarmnearsiouxf7526]

Stalin learn how to develop informants in the Eastern orthodox Seminary

[@sld1776]

That was pretty funny. What's wrong with the audience?

[@jamesgornall5731]

Funny how? Like a clown, like he makes you laugh?

[@sld1776]

@@jamesgornall5731 Ha! Took me a second to get the joke. I hated that movie as much as most other guys loved it.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@sld1776 Me too. But we seem to get our enduring tropes from bad movies.

[@thehealthychefri]

Stalin the son of a cobbler goes on to defeat the Nazis and becomes the winner of WW2!