Why Does Joseph Stalin Matter?

[@jlondon158]

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

[@bastiatintheandes4958]

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]

This guy would need a 10 hour interview.

[@AgendaFiles]

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

[@jayeye4798]

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.

[@welderella]

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

[@welderella]

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

[@bobjenkins4925]

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

[@Mik3xcellence]

Millennial here. I love it

[@chegadesuade]

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

[@HighSpeedNoDrag]

Yes indeed.

[@OSCOCAT]

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.

[@calculatedmasochism7058]

When Stephen Kotkin speaks, a wise man shuts up

[@garyjohnston8543]

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

[@chuckymcchuckface8768]

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!

[@baxter987]

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

[@Rasectos]

Joe Pesci is my favorite Stalin scholar.

[@lukecage9836]

Rasectos lol now all I hear is Pesci 😂.

[@shaolin89]

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

[@Digiphex]

A Buick never had positraction.

[@bazzatheblue]

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

[@Maelli535]

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

[@cybercab]

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

[@doctorgman1]

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

[@hanskloss7726]

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

[@CoronaryArteryDisease.]

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

[@alekseysoldatenkov5675]

This is ABSOLUTELY fascinating. Thank you for uploading.

[@winmine0327]

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

[@Jessica-tz3wb]

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

[@papastalin4534]

Why do I matter? You're going to Siberia

[@VertigoX26]

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

[@DialecticalMaterialismRocks]

Read Grover Furr

[@vertxxgg]

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]

Papa Stalin LOL

[@soyusmaximus7176]

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

[@trolltoll2159]

"He always brings up Stalin" - Norm Macdonald

[@squamish4244]

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

[@ClaimClam]

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

[@b.terenceharwick3222]

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]

total pure capitalism

[@chickenwretch]

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?

[@freekheijting7346]

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]

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

[@zachstott8354]

Would love another video with Kotkin - he's brilliant

[@squamish4244]

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.

[@jomgelborn]

Thank you for this great interview.

[@Nathantodd2012]

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

[@tube-l4h1d]

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.

[@Reconing1]

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

[@iknowwhatsup2880]

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

[@Dracandros76]

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

[@cecilefox9136]

Absolutely fascinating history.

[@lashachakhunashvili1399]

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

[@nryle]

Great Interview. Cannot wait for the next part.

[@PqV72MT4]

This guy is brilliant.

[@johnnantz16]

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

[@knockshinnoch1950]

Brilliant mind, fascinating discussion

[@androidzombie4769]

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

[@laserprawn]

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).

[@Mdigi1982]

Always great to hear from Stephen Kotkin!

[@HighSpeedNoDrag]

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

[@kidwidacake]

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

[@coreyclamp]

"...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]

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

[@stevecoscia]

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

[@cavewebster]

Many, many thanks for this great content!

[@aasldkfja]

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.

[@vangk30]

FASCINATNG interview!! Very revealing.

[@thegulagarchipelago5921]

The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to waste!!

[@MrRichiekaye]

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]

A few great speeches of him online

[@pendejo6466]

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

[@AgendaFiles]

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

[@frankmaitland1254]

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

[@socialminds9894]

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

[@IllicitGreen]

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

[@JoshuaSwan]

IllICITGRYNE I’m proud of you!

[@khrachvikkhrachvik7049]

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

[@squamish4244]

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]

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

[@shadforthw3535]

Can you imagine American teachers teaching this? No way

[@benwitt6902]

Stalin, hero of the left.

[@francescop1]

Millennial crew REPRESENTIN🤘

[@michaelkrochek8823]

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]

Source?

[@installwebercarburetorsona6159]

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.

[@lukecage9836]

BEST INTERVIEWER IN THE BUSINESS!!!

[@victorydaydeepstate]

This is wonderful

[@AgendaFiles]

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

[@DenverDeathrock]

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]

Jason West sociopathic, perhaps narcissistic borderline

[@ssmusic214]

The most important point missing here that Stalin had great deal of experience in internal dealings of gang of bandits he acquired from his bank robbing years. Non of his rivals in bolshevik gang could beat him at that in their internal power struggle.

[@simplicius11]

Stalin was never accused nor sentenced for a robbery. The 'okhrana' had an agent and they knew everything, they caught most of them when they tried to exchange the stolen banknotes.

[@welderella]

This idea about forcing people to modernize.....it reminds me of school... we are forced to go to school to become a modern people..... but the crap we are taught doesn’t serve us......

[@Allzumenschliches44]

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]

Allzumenschliches44 this makes me so happy to hear

[@madamegouze]

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]

@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]

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

[@comradesoros2681]

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.

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

AMAZING VIDEO BRAVO ❤😍❤

[@tomjohn8733]

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

[@guitarsword1]

Remember the words of Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion, “ I am a Bolshevik . “

[@fatlardshowernow234]

That was great. Peter is an excellent interviewer

[@soapbxprod]

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

[@victorydaydeepstate]

I must buy this book

[@Drumsgoon]

Great interview, very clear answers.

[@AgendaFiles]

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

[@interianesq]

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

[@AgendaFiles]

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

[@leb7860]

The famine ended with the election of FDR, who loved uncle Joe. He sent American wheat and produce to the USSR, it was shipped through the Black Sea and the Soviets claimed it was grown in the Ukraine.sold to the population as produce of the USSR.

[@Steve-Richter]

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?

[@jancoil4886]

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.

[@callmedeno]

best interviewer in the fuuuckin game

[@mattwernecke2342]

look forward to reading your books.

[@vitareid]

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

[@Run.Ran.Run1]

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

[@VeraMaier]

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

[@StopFear]

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.

[@malvolio01]

I always wondered how Joe Pesci would sound as an intellectual.

[@rickpur100]

Dr. Kotkin probably does a great Joe Pesci impression

[@ricardo53100]

Kotkin is cool, calm, collected and knows his brief. He is the Cool Hand Luke of college professors.

[@TalkernateHistory]

I love Kotkin so much.

[@ibdaramy5455]

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]

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]

@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]

He's Damn Good.

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

AMAZING VIDEO LOVE YOU ❤❤❤

[@AndyMak-jq1py]

Excellent interview

[@giorgimerabishvili8194]

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

[@terenceboris851]

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

[@BuceGar]

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

[@transkryption]

great interviews!

[@dr1742]

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.

[@jerrystephens9143]

so thankful for this

[@MultiDyre]

Really fascinating. I didn't even know that under Lenin the Russians sort of made things work by allowing the peasants to practice pseudo-capitalism. Then Stalin came along and really, uh, turned Russia into a new direction...

[@vocalbunny7427]

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

[@alec2726]

Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, creator of great power, and destroyer of tens of millions of lives …” And a friend of Franklin Roosevelt, may I remind you all!

[@guygeorgesvoet4177]

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

[@guitarsword1]

The Soviet Union didn’t go out of power . They moved to Israel, England and the US.

[@acosorimaxconto5610]

Stalin's Big Idea. Modernise the peasantry by taking them back to serfdom.

[@lukebruce5234]

more like taking them from illiteracy to outer space

[@dashercronin]

industrial serfdom vv agricultural, or, if really lucky, slavery and death in the gulags.

[@JackHaveman52]

Luke Bruce In 1980, my brother was in the Soviet Union. It was a total mess. Driving through Moscow, you had no idea what was a store. The only way you knew was when you saw a lineup. People would get into the lineup without even asking what the lineup was for because they knew it had to be some necessary daily shopping item and whatever it was you always needed it. Simple things, like toilet paper, were always in short supply. The country with the largest forests on the planet, couldn't make enough toilet paper for its own citizens. Incredibly, one of the first things to fall in short supply in Hugo Chavez's socialist state was toilet paper, as well. What a system. He was in a cab one day and it started to rain. Every vehicle stopped, including his cab. The driver grabbed a set of wind shield wipers, jumped out and snapped them into place on the windshield. Every driver of every stopped vehicle was doing the same thing. When the driver got back in the car, my brother asked what that was all about. The driver said that if you left them in place, people would steal them so you always took them off when you weren't driving. He said you had to because it might take months to replace them because wipers were in such short supply. That's the price the people paid so the Soviets could brag about their space program. Market needs dictated by the government instead of by the people who needed them. Imagine if Trump decided what groceries you were going to need next week. I'll bet you'd love that.

[@RedFlagSaid]

boring liberal BS.

[@JackHaveman52]

MrSunshine64 It's Marxist policy. That's what Stalin was essentially supporting, although he did fight hard to maintain his spot as the head of the state. The essential Marxism was still in place all through the Soviet era. That lack of essential goods is a trademark of all communist regimes, no matter the era or the country. That's a disingenuous statement.

[@gregswanepoel5710]

clear good speaker

[@mariaspencersalt8946]

Thank you

[@almcdonald8676]

Nothing like the mellifluous tones of Pete Robinson to relax one into a receptive state for the forthcoming wisdom

[@junkscience6397]

Slipping into sychophancy, are we? lol

[@almcdonald8676]

What an utterly fatuous and pointlessly malicious rejoinder. I can only assume it’s motivated by pique at a critique of Stalinism, which suggests that fatuity and pointless malice are defining characteristics of the authors life.

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

THANKS FOR THE VIDEO ❤❤❤❤