He's the best. The one thing he said I'm not sure has come true is about the cash flow thing. We've tried to shut down the Russian banking since the war began. Some say it's working some say no. Of course maybe our not so smart politicians haven't done it the right way? We'll see but I'd never doubt Prof Kotkin. Luv him.
@@richardhausig9493 hmm ye but not not tried hard enough. We needed to cut them off SWIFT and go after all their london, new york, luxembourg etc assets. We have to some extent but not full on
@@michaelcrockis7679 Great quote, but you get the impression with Kotkin that he means it, lol. He's wrong, he's a Great speaker specifically Because he's not polished and pretentiously academic about it, and he's wise enough to be modest. Big fan of this guy.
Same here, but his writing skill is in a different world than his lecturing. His lecturing is passable, and good because he's informative, but his writing is top notch.
I can't get enough of his teaching. I also am reading one of his books. I'll read more, but I'm so dyslexic that it will take me seemly forever to get though Stalin Vol. 1.
0:19:09 - -------------- 0:19:19 - 0:19:28 - the Rule of the Few in the Name of the Many -------------- 0:20:02 - Attribute 1 : 0:20:50 - Attribute 2 : -------------- 0:23:37 - Attribute 3 : Control over Life-chances 0:25:45 - Attribute 4 : The WELL or the Idealogical piece : Invent powerful narratives to enforce dependence -------------- 0:27:40 - All together : Modern Authoritarianism . . . Overlap with Totalitarianism 0:28:00 - Accordion -------------- 0:28:40 - Attribute 5 :External : International System : Conducive or Corrosive of Authoritarianism 0:29:45 - Our Instruments [external to authoritarian countries] abused by as we allow them to be vulnerable -------------- 0:33:12 - A Russia Policy of U.S.A. 0:35:15 - Policy for World Betterment keeps Russian damage Control a component -------------- 0:36:36 - Versalles Treaty 1919 : Peace was punitive 0:38:00 - Both arguments in common discussion about the 1919 Treaty are wrong. Why ? -------------- 0:38:35 - Treaty was against Germany w/o Russia
When he told you about the 25 years of behavioral that the Russians would do to get the approval of the West, and everybody listened, I realized the low standard of this crowd.
@@TheDavidlloydjones I was just thinking before I saw your comment: This guy is possibly the very worst public speaker I ever heard, but also my favorite. There are countless reasons for the former, but I think the one core reason for the latter is that I trust his judgment-and the subjects he speaks on (notably, Joe Stalin and his regime) are almost impossible to judge wisely, fairly and insightfully. Balanced, yet with his moral compass fully functioning. Given Stalin's central role in 20th century history, that suggests that Kotkin might be the most reliable source for understanding our times (in the area of global politics).
@@vanhowell3011 Van, Well said on all points. Oddly, when I upvote you, with the thumbs-up symbol above, it shows zero. I wonder whether this means somebody before had left a negative balance with a downvote in the barely an hour since you posted. Anyway, best wishes and agreed. -dlj.
In the early 1980s, I was in the USN and a Soviet fighter buzzed our ship. Evryone on deck threw whatever they had in their hands in front of it, nuts, bolts, shackles, wrenches, etc... The captain got on the 1MC and freaked out on us, saying that we were going to cause an intermational incident. The jet came back again, once, but not nearly as close as the first time.
Love how Kotkin forcefully corrals his audience, in this case CATO bigshots, into a pen where he treats them as unwilling learners. Kotkin recognizes that not only are these audiences stupified by what they think they already know, they are not really open to learning anything that challenges their existing world view. Hence he treats them to a review of where they are wrong.
@@phillipleconte3715 - I do like educational discipline, I like everything about Kotkin's lecture style. I disagree of course on various points when he makes implications about US policy, but he's a most valuable jewel of academia. I was very pleased to find I am able to claim we are in natural agreement that; when one reviews Stalin, greatness surpasses all other qualities, and the trope of his evil is a tiresome and dull parroting of the least important of his qualities. In lecture he puts this across well, in interviews the interviewer inevitably rotates around the tired and rather useless "Stalin as evil guy" trope. Lesson there in how poorly thought out popular negatives hold people's minds so effectively.
@@774Rob breathtaking, in that, like Stalin, he ended lives. stalin was a blight on humanity...life around him literally died. i encourage people to read "koba the dread"...(forgive me if my cheeky comment sounded like an admirer. )
S.K. was right about Russia but wrong about Ukraine. He was right about the potential efficacy of more serious sanctions but skipped the reason they were not imposed, which was our greed, our corruption and our addiction to the easy money that oligarchs were stealing from the Russian people. Kotkin is still better than whoever was coming is second. However, Donald Trump turned out to be much worse than Kotkin intimated and fascism is far more of a threat to America than will ever be seen from Hoover Tower, where I grew up riding my horse to swim in Searsville Lake.
Professor Kotkin , wonderful presentation, exact, concise presentation of both history and political reality of the present day situation. His analysis of the complex situation is superb.
This is marvellous,and so illuminating about how we are where are.I think Stephen is by far the most interesting giver of talks and lectures that I have ever had the pleasure to see.Thank you Stephen,and thank you Nathan for posting.Just bought the first two volumes of his Stalin trilogy,which I am about to start.
@@NikolaAvramov Oh boy... 😅 It's always a sign of great intellectual prowess when you have to equate your insightfull academic to the top nazi propagandist.
Kotkin did this lecture years ago. He got two big things right: 1) Russia is not as strong as we thought 2) the way to combat them is targeting their cash flow
There is a biography by a woman from an emigree Irish family that made a career in the French Military. It chronicles the destabilization of France by her intellectuals, the French revolution and the wars under Napoleon. It is an interesting chronicle of social destabilization and parallels the Russian experience. The process is well understood.
FROM CROATIA: Congratulations on the outstanding lecture. Rarely has anyone studied socialism and communism so deeply while drawing simple conclusions. It's comforting to know that there is someone in the USA who analyzes our situation so well, so that true politics can always rely on such a scientist. Thank you very much.
Kotkins confidence in his research and wonderful ability to communicate his ideas makes him a great speaker and I would think a great writer...(I have yet to read his books on Stalin)..and I hope to read him
40:50 This point was explained by the great Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner. He explained that Yeltsin did not even ask for Crimea to be returned to Russia when he conspired with the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to secede from the Soviet Union and begin the breakdown of the USSR, because Yeltsin was anxious to get rid of Gorbachev's leadership over him. It's funny that Yeltsin shamelessly demanded Crimea back after he himself gave it up.
The picture upfront does indeed show sosiopathic stare. Regular folks will know they are looked at but will refrain from glancing back as a sign of " I get back at you".
Need to learn about levels of abstraction not to get fooled so easily "When we say, then, that “Bessie is a cow,” we are only noting the process-Bessie’s resemblances to other “cows” and ignoring dif- ferences . What is more, we are leaping a huge chasm: from the dynamic process-Bessie, a whirl of electro-chemico-neural eventful- ness, to a relatively static “idea,” “concept,” or word , “cow.” The reader is referred to the diagram entitled “The Abstraction Ladder,” which he will find on page 169. 1 As the diagram illustrates, the “object” we see is an abstraction of the lowest level, but it is still an abstraction, since it leaves out characteristics of the process that is the real Bessie. The word “Bessie” (cow1) is the lowest verbal level of abstraction, leaving out further characteristics - the differences between Bessie yesterday and Bessie today, between Bessie today and Bessie tomorrow - and selecting only the similarities. The word “cow” selects only the similarities between Bessie (cow1), Daisy (C0W2), Rosie (cows), and so on, and therefore leaves out still more about Bessie. The word “livestock” selects or abstracts only the features that Bessie has in common with pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. The term “farm asset” abstracts only the features Bessie has in common with barns, fences, livestock, furniture, generating plants, and tractors, and is therefore on a very high level of abstraction. " "Language In Thought And Action" - by Hayakawa, S. I. archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.30957/page/n177
Very sad news that third volume of Stalin is so far away. Maybe two separate volumes on WWII and early Cold War and aftermatch would be better solution 😂
I heard someone at a town hall meeting years ago make an interesting assertion. I don't know if it was original to him, but I have thought of it often: "Liberty is freedom under self-control." Hmmm...
@@tuck-brainwks-eutent-hidva1098 Marx said, Freedom is a conscious necessity! Whenever, when do you achieve self-control? when you are conscious of reality and necessity!
Absolutely -- awareness of reality and necessity seem like good candidates for a list of "prerequisites for self-control," but I doubt they are the only ones. (Personality stability, maturity, etc.) The speaker's point (@ the town hall meeting) was, I think, that freedom devolves into license, not true liberty, without self-control...?
Why stop there?? Anatoly Chubais, Boris Berezovski, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Petr Aven, Vitaly Malkin, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Arkady Rotenberg....
Always one JEW obsessed idiot with a boring conspiracy. Yes JEWS sometimes do well. The vast majority of successful Russians are not JEWS. Feel free to be an idiot.
Dear Alec, lets not split hairs. legal agreement notwithstanding we should not underplay the magnanimous gesture and spirit of the agreement. a handshake and gentlemanly understanding leaves a lot unsaid but presupposes a degree of moral compliance.
It's a real shame that Joe Pesci doesn't really seem to have very many, or any, good lines in his movies for Stephen to turn into jokes in his lectures.
You know what ..if Stephen Kotkin was my teacher fot all my subjects growing up through high school I would be a world renown scholar right now instead of a struggling heroin addict with failing health at 54 years old ...that was a partially fictitious statement but the overall point remains.
Buzzing aircraft in international airspace is not against international law and NATO countries do it too. Kotkin would start WW3 with this bad idea of shooting down intercepting aircraft.
Love listening to Kotkin and have enormous respect for him. But he makes a point that contradicts one of his more recent sessions on Uncommon Knowledge (5 Questions with S.Kotkin). In that episode from about 6 months ago he was very dismissive of the economic sanctions as a weapon against the Russian regime, saying such sanctions never work. Yet here at 23:05 he makes the point that economic sanctions are a key factor in cutting off the cashflow needed to sustain a modern authoritarian regime like Putin’s Russia.
"Communists battled fascists for supremacy" The thing that never gets explained is that Fascism was a result of the spread of Marxism. The Marxists actually created the counter ideology by default. If it hadnt been for Marx we would have seen neither
@Ron Maimon Marx was wrong. Marxism is an ant farm ideology but humans are not ants. Hitler and the nazis rose directly as a result of marxism in 1920's Germany.
@Ron Maimon Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Identity politics is an ant farm ideology you Jackass. BTW Socialism fails the moment ONE MAN stands up and says "I dont want to be a socialist ... I want more" Then the state has to oppress him, it has no choice as it must re enforce group think
As a largely libertarian-minded American, I am closer to Kotkin's general worldview than to Timothy Snyder's. However, like all of us, both have strengths and limitations. Kotkin observes well some of the paradoxes inherent in Russia from a [very] American perspective (in an FPRI champagne brunch talk); Snyder (in a talk in Ukraine called "Ancient is Modern") seems to get a bit more inside of Russian culture and philosophy, though even at that, he takes only a glancing blow off of a central reality: the core of Russian (& Putin) identity -- at least from antiquity -- as located in the Eastern expression of the ancient Church. (I'm interested in how the several generations of communism, followed by openness to western culture, have affected this, but I understand restoration is ongoing...?) It's interesting that the MC of this talk observed that this "Bolshevik revolution anniversary lecture" (presumably around the date of the October events) was timed with [Western] All Saints' and All Souls' day observances. Though his rare reflection on the connection between faith and civil life is welcome, our collective western myopia (around Reformation/Enlightenment) shows itself in moments like this -- in ancient Eastern practice, these observances take place in the spring -- more Bloody Sunday than Lenin-on-a-train ☻ .
I live in Vienna were Sberbank Europe is seated. It was said it was closed but there are still signs on their building. SE is a 100% subsidiary of Sberbank consisting of the former CEE daughters of Austrian Volksbanken. Jeff Nyquist quoted a former KGB officer that all Austrian bank directors worked for KGB. There is some plausibility in it for me as I investigative covert Russian influence. Chairman of SE's board of auditors always was Siegfried Wolf who knows Putin and is partner to Oleg Deripaska. SE's laywer is Cerha Hempel in Vienna where Edith Hlawati was partner who is now head of ÖBAG, company for administrating state enterprises and state shares. An important part is OMV (oil company), a partner of Gazprom.
Thanks you, very informative. I hope all of our elected reps in Washingto DC are watching it this weekend. Why not publish this talk as a third book, keep working on WWII book.
The CATO Institute think tank has done an enormous amount of damage to the USA. It's influence on conservatism and government is terrible. This lecture, however, is outstanding, as is Mr. Kotkin and his work.
Kotkin would say that if this is true then the failure of the CATO Institute says more about the problems with US society than of the CATO institute itself
Brilliant on sociology and geopolitics Mr. Kotkin. Poor on US economy. For instance: "We going to evict Chinese student's from the US universities..." Well great, instead of US schools, Chinese student's are simply go to UK or Australian universities and never come back to US. Meanwhile in USA: still in 2018 state founding for higher education was down 13% from before the world's financial crisis (2008). As government subsidies fell, schools immediately turned into a new subsidy - international tuition. 85% of US students receive some kind of financial aid ($15000 on average), international students almost always pay the FULL PRICE. For instance - In 2018 at Michigan State Uni, in state freshmans pay 25k/two semesters, while international students pay 60k/2semesters. Every year, Chinese students contribute $15 billion to the US economy. More students come from China to America than the next 5 countries combined (Including India). In other words, evicting Chinese student's from the US universities you are going to dramatically harm all US schools. Who is going to compensate the loss of those 15 billions? US taxpayers I guess? Meaning US universities will have to drastically rise their already impossible rates? Do that and wait what young voters will tell you next. It's too late to play this game. And you are absolutely right - we are the only thing that can bring us down.
Dr Kotkin notes aspects of authoritarian structures that are eerily familiar to those of us that live in the West. Authoritarian entities that are repressive, but not too effective, is exactly what Sam Francis was describing with his concept of Anarcho-Tyranny. Control over “life chances” exists in the West as well. If you are guilty of WrongThink, or if you associate too closely with those who are, and it becomes known, you can be de-platformed from social media, denied access to credit, or a university education, and ultimately, your means of employment.
I cannot distinguish heartfelt criticism from Russian disinformation. While I respect your right to express an opinion, I must have a critical approach to those who prefer to oppose Liberty.
@@NikolaAvramov Who unfortunately wants the same of the west. It is a very bizarre circumstance where when faced with a common enemy we put aside differences but are right back to butting heads once again. I think USA peoples (not government/military) have no real qualms with Russia. I don't believe the Russian people have any real qualm with the USA either. That is backed up by the Cold War never going HOT. If Russia and USA could simply agree to disagree that would be best. I feel as if the threat sort of relies on military presence for both nations. USA puts a lot into the military and technology while Russia does the same and tensions escalate whereas the normal people tend to just not care so long as the tensions aren't their personal tensions.
@@glenncole7909 That is generally true with governments. Also - you have blatantly disregarded asymmetry in those relations, although your tact warrants respect.
@@glenncole7909 there have only been three countries in US history who posed a threat to the United States mainland. Great Britain in 1812, Mexico in 1848, and Russia in 1962. Mexico lost half their land. Great Britain built US manufacturing, and was still carved up like a pumpkin after World War Two. Russia is the smallest it has been in the United States entire history. If the United States views a country as ever having been a major threat to the United States mainland they are vindictive in an almost illogical way. The Soviet Union made the mistake of adding themselves to the list. For this reason the United States had rebuilt Japan and Germany despite differences because of geopolitics, Russia has been carved up despite geopolitics.
@@glenncole7909 It's not "the West" that Putin quite understandably wants to destroy, it's the evil mental cripples that have hijacked it. And he's not the only one. But you won't see the massive protests on the "free press" of "The West".
this aged spectacularly well
He's the best. The one thing he said I'm not sure has come true is about the cash flow thing. We've tried to shut down the Russian banking since the war began. Some say it's working some say no. Of course maybe our not so smart politicians haven't done it the right way? We'll see but I'd never doubt Prof Kotkin. Luv him.
@@richardhausig9493 hmm ye but not not tried hard enough. We needed to cut them off SWIFT and go after all their london, new york, luxembourg etc assets. We have to some extent but not full on
I like these videos because they’re not interrupted by ads. Also Kotkin is a phenomenal lecturer.
I love the ones without ads too. It makes you feel special somehow
He says "I'm not very good at giving lectures" . Whenever I see a new Kotkin lecture it is a happy day, he is one of the best that has ever done it.
Modesty is the adornment of the wise.
@@michaelcrockis7679 Great quote, but you get the impression with Kotkin that he means it, lol. He's wrong, he's a Great speaker specifically Because he's not polished and pretentiously academic about it, and he's wise enough to be modest. Big fan of this guy.
Same here, but his writing skill is in a different world than his lecturing. His lecturing is passable, and good because he's informative, but his writing is top notch.
I can't get enough of his teaching. I also am reading one of his books. I'll read more, but I'm so dyslexic that it will take me seemly forever to get though Stalin Vol. 1.
@@runninginsunshine24 try his unabridged audiobooks instead
He's one of today's best lecturers. The very best on Russia.
He is. Simply. So. Good!
5 years ago he got things spot on. Amazingly well
“The rule of the few in the name of the many”. That is the most profound thing I’ve heard all week
So, I have a question for you - Why is that bad?
In their name, not in their interest.
0:19:09 -
-------------- 0:19:19 -
0:19:28 - the Rule of the Few in the Name of the Many
-------------- 0:20:02 - Attribute 1 :
0:20:50 - Attribute 2 :
-------------- 0:23:37 - Attribute 3 : Control over Life-chances
0:25:45 - Attribute 4 : The WELL or the Idealogical piece : Invent powerful narratives to enforce dependence
-------------- 0:27:40 - All together : Modern Authoritarianism . . . Overlap with Totalitarianism
0:28:00 - Accordion
-------------- 0:28:40 - Attribute 5 :External : International System : Conducive or Corrosive of Authoritarianism
0:29:45 - Our Instruments [external to authoritarian countries] abused by as we allow them to be vulnerable
-------------- 0:33:12 - A Russia Policy of U.S.A.
0:35:15 - Policy for World Betterment keeps Russian damage Control a component
-------------- 0:36:36 - Versalles Treaty 1919 : Peace was punitive
0:38:00 - Both arguments in common discussion about the 1919 Treaty are wrong. Why ?
-------------- 0:38:35 - Treaty was against Germany w/o Russia
superb notes, thanks!
How does anyone "transfer cash from your account to their account" ?
@@GerardVaughan-qe7mlI guess hacking
This guy is a genius. They should do a movie of him starring Joe Pesci.
That macaroni munchkin?!?!
I was literally just thinking this
There seems to be an echo in here...
Yes he amuses me.
Cracked me up this one, as usually because it´s true :-)
Finally, more Kotkin!
He's annoying as all get out, but damn, he's good!
When he told you about the 25 years of behavioral that the Russians would do to get the approval of the West, and everybody listened, I realized the low standard of this crowd.
@@TheDavidlloydjones I was just thinking before I saw your comment: This guy is possibly the very worst public speaker I ever heard, but also my favorite. There are countless reasons for the former, but I think the one core reason for the latter is that I trust his judgment-and the subjects he speaks on (notably, Joe Stalin and his regime) are almost impossible to judge wisely, fairly and insightfully. Balanced, yet with his moral compass fully functioning. Given Stalin's central role in 20th century history, that suggests that Kotkin might be the most reliable source for understanding our times (in the area of global politics).
@@vanhowell3011
Van,
Well said on all points.
Oddly, when I upvote you, with the thumbs-up symbol above, it shows zero. I wonder whether this means somebody before had left a negative balance with a downvote in the barely an hour since you posted.
Anyway, best wishes and agreed.
-dlj.
@@TheDavidlloydjones Upvoting you works okay. Cheers.
Another Kotkin bravura presentation I could listen to him all day .His books are of a similar quality
Can listen to Mr. Kotkin all day, thanks for uploading..
Amazing guy. Always enjoy his lectures
In the early 1980s, I was in the USN and a Soviet fighter buzzed our ship. Evryone on deck threw whatever they had in their hands in front of it, nuts, bolts, shackles, wrenches, etc... The captain got on the 1MC and freaked out on us, saying that we were going to cause an intermational incident. The jet came back again, once, but not nearly as close as the first time.
Love how Kotkin forcefully corrals his audience, in this case CATO bigshots, into a pen where he treats them as unwilling learners. Kotkin recognizes that not only are these audiences stupified by what they think they already know, they are not really open to learning anything that challenges their existing world view. Hence he treats them to a review of where they are wrong.
Love his threat to come down off the stage if he spots an open laptop on facebook. Man after my own heart.
@@phillipleconte3715 - I do like educational discipline, I like everything about Kotkin's lecture style. I disagree of course on various points when he makes implications about US policy, but he's a most valuable jewel of academia.
I was very pleased to find I am able to claim we are in natural agreement that; when one reviews Stalin, greatness surpasses all other qualities, and the trope of his evil is a tiresome and dull parroting of the least important of his qualities.
In lecture he puts this across well, in interviews the interviewer inevitably rotates around the tired and rather useless "Stalin as evil guy" trope. Lesson there in how poorly thought out popular negatives hold people's minds so effectively.
@@johnsmith1474 stalin was breathtaking.
@@phillipleconte3715 Was Hitler breathtaking?
@@774Rob breathtaking, in that, like Stalin, he ended lives. stalin was a blight on humanity...life around him literally died. i encourage people to read "koba the dread"...(forgive me if my cheeky comment sounded like an admirer. )
Спасибо! Ваша лекция великолепна! Your lecture is absolutely brilliant. Your methods are the only ones that could possibly play out.
S.K. was right about Russia but wrong about Ukraine. He was right about the potential efficacy of more serious sanctions but skipped the reason they were not imposed, which was our greed, our corruption and our addiction to the easy money that oligarchs were stealing from the Russian people. Kotkin is still better than whoever was coming is second.
However, Donald Trump turned out to be much worse than Kotkin intimated and fascism is far more of a threat to America than will ever be seen from Hoover Tower, where I grew up riding my horse to swim in Searsville Lake.
Always enligtening, a real scholar/teacher; the third volume is worth however long it takes
Professor Kotkin ,
wonderful presentation, exact, concise presentation of both history and political reality of the present day situation. His analysis of the complex situation is superb.
Well said
This is marvellous,and so illuminating about how we are where are.I think Stephen is by far the most interesting giver of talks and lectures that I have ever had the pleasure to see.Thank you Stephen,and thank you Nathan for posting.Just bought the first two volumes of his Stalin trilogy,which I am about to start.
The best lecture I have watched/listened to about modern authoritarian systems
You can switch to Goebbels right away. You'll notice no difference and it's better to go to the source material, anyway.
Dude, you have a very low iq if you find this informative.
@@timookello3822 what would be a better alternative?
@@NikolaAvramov
Oh boy... 😅
It's always a sign of great intellectual prowess when you have to equate your insightfull academic to the top nazi propagandist.
Starts at 4:30
Kotkin did this lecture years ago. He got two big things right: 1) Russia is not as strong as we thought 2) the way to combat them is targeting their cash flow
Who knew Joe Pesci is a Russian scholar .
You know, you're a funny guy
'Joe' is probably the best Euro-Russian scholar. And the personality is top notch
Old, but good joke 😂
A tiresome "joke".
ACTUALLY SERBIAN FROM KOSOVO
Kotkin is outstanding! The best man to articulate international relations as easy as a walk in the park. Can't get enough!
corruption should be treated as theft, catching thieves is good
19:10 "You think I'm kiddding??" classic Joe Pesci.
I actually looked to see if he was about to break someone's nose.
Whoa whoa whoa.
You tryn to be funny?
Funny how?
Didn't Russia count on an inevitable Western collapse once before? Didn't work out too well for them as I recall.
There is a biography by a woman from an emigree Irish family that made a career in the French Military. It chronicles the destabilization of France by her intellectuals, the French revolution and the wars under Napoleon.
It is an interesting chronicle of social destabilization and parallels the Russian experience.
The process is well understood.
Great to listen to Stephen K.
FROM CROATIA: Congratulations on the outstanding lecture. Rarely has anyone studied socialism and communism so deeply while drawing simple conclusions. It's comforting to know that there is someone in the USA who analyzes our situation so well, so that true politics can always rely on such a scientist. Thank you very much.
@34:32 What was the word he said when referring to something taking place? Glashutten? Glashelton?
Gleichschaltung
Extraordinary refreshing talk. Making the point that one has to have an end goal is so obvious but so necessary.
Real Realpolitik.
Superb lecture.
Thanks for posting this.
I couldn't find any lectures on the 2nd book. Maybe it hasn't been released yet.
This is so great to hear this clarity and understanding !!
skip to 4:10
Relevant more than ever
Kotkins confidence in his research and wonderful ability to communicate his ideas makes him a great speaker and I would think a great writer...(I have yet to read his books on Stalin)..and I hope to read him
Professor Kotkin, at the end of your lecture I rewound it and watched it again. Cheers.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
Learn so much from your lectures. Good luck with your next book.
This is amazing..thanks for sharing..hehe..thumbs up
I've listened to several Kotkin talks, but I didn't realize he could meme.
40:50 This point was explained by the great Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner. He explained that Yeltsin did not even ask for Crimea to be returned to Russia when he conspired with the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to secede from the Soviet Union and begin the breakdown of the USSR, because Yeltsin was anxious to get rid of Gorbachev's leadership over him. It's funny that Yeltsin shamelessly demanded Crimea back after he himself gave it up.
Are you explaining the Rusia or Usa systams
I'd love to see him do a thorough analysis of the Iranian regime.
“Trashcanistan” laughed my ass off
The picture upfront does indeed show sosiopathic stare. Regular folks will know they are looked at but will refrain from glancing back as a sign of " I get back at you".
Totally brilliant and funny as hell.
Watching this on a day that China has decided to prepare for war on 2 fronts is like dejavu
President Kotkin? I would sleep soundly if the Prof was in charge...
Need to learn about levels of abstraction not to get fooled so easily
"When we say, then, that “Bessie is a cow,” we are only noting
the process-Bessie’s resemblances to other “cows” and ignoring dif-
ferences . What is more, we are leaping a huge chasm: from the
dynamic process-Bessie, a whirl of electro-chemico-neural eventful-
ness, to a relatively static “idea,” “concept,” or word , “cow.” The
reader is referred to the diagram entitled “The Abstraction Ladder,”
which he will find on page 169. 1
As the diagram illustrates, the “object” we see is an abstraction
of the lowest level, but it is still an abstraction, since it leaves out
characteristics of the process that is the real Bessie. The word
“Bessie” (cow1) is the lowest verbal level of abstraction, leaving
out further characteristics - the differences between Bessie yesterday
and Bessie today, between Bessie today and Bessie tomorrow - and
selecting only the similarities. The word “cow” selects only the
similarities between Bessie (cow1), Daisy (C0W2), Rosie (cows),
and so on, and therefore leaves out still more about Bessie. The
word “livestock” selects or abstracts only the features that Bessie
has in common with pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. The term
“farm asset” abstracts only the features Bessie has in common with
barns, fences, livestock, furniture, generating plants, and tractors,
and is therefore on a very high level of abstraction.
"
"Language In Thought And Action" -
by Hayakawa, S. I. archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.30957/page/n177
starts at 4:15
Grasping the intro is important, your impatience is misplaced.
Hero
@@johnsmith1474 the into is your usual CATO institute neo liberal propaganda. Go ahead and listen to it if that's your thing, but otherwise skip it.
The problem with Foreign Policy 101 is that is requires common sense. ... Just how common is that when psychopaths are calling the shots?
Very sad news that third volume of Stalin is so far away. Maybe two separate volumes on WWII and early Cold War and aftermatch would be better solution 😂
@@juanvargas9 I would have two of them 😊
Brilliant and oddly funny
Steven Kotkin is a national treasure.
40:40 Crimea contained savastapol the submarine base of the Soviet union, which they built. Also, a warm water port.
Please is it possible one of you the so overwise Americans could give me e definition of what is freedom or liberty? In philosophy aspects?
In our American sense, it basically means freedom *from* external compulsion or restraint, as long as it doesn't impinge upon the freedom of others.
I heard someone at a town hall meeting years ago make an interesting assertion. I don't know if it was original to him, but I have thought of it often: "Liberty is freedom under self-control." Hmmm...
@@tuck-brainwks-eutent-hidva1098 Marx said, Freedom is a conscious necessity! Whenever, when do you achieve self-control? when you are conscious of reality and necessity!
Absolutely -- awareness of reality and necessity seem like good candidates for a list of "prerequisites for self-control," but I doubt they are the only ones. (Personality stability, maturity, etc.) The speaker's point (@ the town hall meeting) was, I think, that freedom devolves into license, not true liberty, without self-control...?
@delosombres you sound like a nazi
Jeffrey Sachs, Yegor Gaidar, Khordokovsky, Gusinksy etc.
Feel free to discuss these individuals at length. 👍 😉
Why stop there?? Anatoly Chubais, Boris Berezovski, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Petr Aven, Vitaly Malkin, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Arkady Rotenberg....
Always one JEW obsessed idiot with a boring conspiracy. Yes JEWS sometimes do well. The vast majority of successful Russians are not JEWS.
Feel free to be an idiot.
Good Old Catkin (David) slays the Russian Giant (Goliath)!
God I wish there actually were a “Red Army TV”.
Actually we have red army tv, it is Zvezda means star. And is is as much full of shit as army it is.
You know I never liked CATO but after this lecture i will tolerate it
Dear Alec, lets not split hairs. legal agreement notwithstanding we should not underplay the magnanimous gesture and spirit of the agreement. a handshake and gentlemanly understanding leaves a lot unsaid but presupposes a degree of moral compliance.
Make him Secretary of State please.
I don't like Cato but I adore Kotkin! D.A., J.D., NYC
Love this guy, brilliant lecture.
Lenin, Stalin, Eltzin, Putin. Why?
'What is the private sector? It's freedom.'
Precious lecture.
LOL Is Samuel Huntington OK in this building. This is a different kind of lecture for CATO
can't be libertarian if you don't hear other points of view.
It's a real shame that Joe Pesci doesn't really seem to have very many, or any, good lines in his movies for Stephen to turn into jokes in his lectures.
There were times when the description of the Russian authoritarian regime reminded me of the current government of Mexico (2021)
You know what ..if Stephen Kotkin was my teacher fot all my subjects growing up through high school I would be a world renown scholar right now instead of a struggling heroin addict with failing health at 54 years old ...that was a partially fictitious statement but the overall point remains.
Buzzing aircraft in international airspace is not against international law and NATO countries do it too. Kotkin would start WW3 with this bad idea of shooting down intercepting aircraft.
Depends on how close they get
thank you..
What does he mean, “ MSNBC, otherwise known as Red Army TV?” I don’t understand that insult.
Love listening to Kotkin and have enormous respect for him. But he makes a point that contradicts one of his more recent sessions on Uncommon Knowledge (5 Questions with S.Kotkin). In that episode from about 6 months ago he was very dismissive of the economic sanctions as a weapon against the Russian regime, saying such sanctions never work. Yet here at 23:05 he makes the point that economic sanctions are a key factor in cutting off the cashflow needed to sustain a modern authoritarian regime like Putin’s Russia.
Very clever and interesting man
Clever...yes. Very clever at disseminating falsehoods.
Timo Okello Like what?
"Communists battled fascists for supremacy" The thing that never gets explained is that Fascism was a result of the spread of Marxism. The Marxists actually created the counter ideology by default. If it hadnt been for Marx we would have seen neither
@Ron Maimon Marx was a journalist.
@Ron Maimon What academic appoints did Marx hold?
@Ron MaimonA genius indeed: an academic with no academy.
@Ron Maimon Marx was wrong. Marxism is an ant farm ideology but humans are not ants. Hitler and the nazis rose directly as a result of marxism in 1920's Germany.
@Ron Maimon Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Identity politics is an ant farm ideology you Jackass. BTW Socialism fails the moment ONE MAN stands up and says "I dont want to be a socialist ... I want more" Then the state has to oppress him, it has no choice as it must re enforce group think
those regimes that do't control life chances are at risk. whatever else you have to say about it this is why a UBI is essential.
And the kid at Harvard was ?
Cut Russian companies from Western bond and equity markets. That's the end of Putin.
Thank you John Bolton, you completely useless fool.
As a largely libertarian-minded American, I am closer to Kotkin's general worldview than to Timothy Snyder's. However, like all of us, both have strengths and limitations.
Kotkin observes well some of the paradoxes inherent in Russia from a [very] American perspective (in an FPRI champagne brunch talk); Snyder (in a talk in Ukraine called "Ancient is Modern") seems to get a bit more inside of Russian culture and philosophy, though even at that, he takes only a glancing blow off of a central reality: the core of Russian (& Putin) identity -- at least from antiquity -- as located in the Eastern expression of the ancient Church. (I'm interested in how the several generations of communism, followed by openness to western culture, have affected this, but I understand restoration is ongoing...?)
It's interesting that the MC of this talk observed that this "Bolshevik revolution anniversary lecture" (presumably around the date of the October events) was timed with [Western] All Saints' and All Souls' day observances. Though his rare reflection on the connection between faith and civil life is welcome, our collective western myopia (around Reformation/Enlightenment) shows itself in moments like this -- in ancient Eastern practice, these observances take place in the spring -- more Bloody Sunday than Lenin-on-a-train ☻ .
My Intellectual Vinny
37:44 Now I really want to hear Kotkin rehabilitate Chamberlain.
I live in Vienna were Sberbank Europe is seated. It was said it was closed but there are still signs on their building. SE is a 100% subsidiary of Sberbank consisting of the former CEE daughters of Austrian Volksbanken. Jeff Nyquist quoted a former KGB officer that all Austrian bank directors worked for KGB. There is some plausibility in it for me as I investigative covert Russian influence. Chairman of SE's board of auditors always was Siegfried Wolf who knows Putin and is partner to Oleg Deripaska. SE's laywer is Cerha Hempel in Vienna where Edith Hlawati was partner who is now head of ÖBAG, company for administrating state enterprises and state shares. An important part is OMV (oil company), a partner of Gazprom.
Thanks you, very informative. I hope all of our elected reps in Washingto DC are watching it this weekend. Why not publish this talk as a third book, keep working on WWII book.
"MSNBC - better known as Red Army TV"
Yes. First question: 3rd book.
CATO is a cowboy libertarian think tank that skews right and I loved Kolkin moping the floor with false assumptions CATO likes to spew out
The CATO Institute think tank has done an enormous amount of damage to the USA. It's influence on conservatism and government is terrible. This lecture, however, is outstanding, as is Mr. Kotkin and his work.
Kotkin would say that if this is true then the failure of the CATO Institute says more about the problems with US society than of the CATO institute itself
best video
19:13 Oh Oh!!! I got nervous.
"Russia does not bank in North Korea."
HUGE line. The underbelly of this statement alone is an entire college course.
Thank you.
Another great lecture from Mr. Kotkin.
Always makes my day when there's new Prof Pesci
Russians are coming! Notify your homosexuals. LOL. The Sayanim hate Christian Russia.
Full of wisdom
How? Use Ai
What's going to happen after
Putin
Million Dollar question
@@NathanWatsonzero ...... Billion dollar question.
Most likely, me, you and all the commentators in this thread will grow old, fall ill and die after Putin.
collapse of Muscovite empire worst than in 1917 or 1991
You'll be dead by then, so ....
Brilliant on sociology and geopolitics Mr. Kotkin. Poor on US economy. For instance: "We going to evict Chinese student's from the US universities..."
Well great, instead of US schools, Chinese student's are simply go to UK or Australian universities and never come back to US. Meanwhile in USA: still in 2018 state founding for higher education was down 13% from before the world's financial crisis (2008). As government subsidies fell, schools immediately turned into a new subsidy - international tuition. 85% of US students receive some kind of financial aid ($15000 on average), international students almost always pay the FULL PRICE. For instance - In 2018 at Michigan State Uni, in state freshmans pay 25k/two semesters, while international students pay 60k/2semesters.
Every year, Chinese students contribute $15 billion to the US economy. More students come from China to America than the next 5 countries combined (Including India). In other words, evicting Chinese student's from the US universities you are going to dramatically harm all US schools. Who is going to compensate the loss of those 15 billions? US taxpayers I guess? Meaning US universities will have to drastically rise their already impossible rates? Do that and wait what young voters will tell you next. It's too late to play this game.
And you are absolutely right - we are the only thing that can bring us down.
Chinese student's what?
Dr Kotkin notes aspects of authoritarian structures that are eerily familiar to those of us that live in the West. Authoritarian entities that are repressive, but not too effective, is exactly what Sam Francis was describing with his concept of Anarcho-Tyranny. Control over “life chances” exists in the West as well. If you are guilty of WrongThink, or if you associate too closely with those who are, and it becomes known, you can be de-platformed from social media, denied access to credit, or a university education, and ultimately, your means of employment.
Becoming more familiar every day. Even in the month since you wrote this -- preach! ☻
I cannot distinguish heartfelt criticism from Russian disinformation. While I respect your right to express an opinion, I must have a critical approach to those who prefer to oppose Liberty.
They don't care. They just want Russia to be destroyed. They are the "Cato" institute, after all.
@@NikolaAvramov Who unfortunately wants the same of the west. It is a very bizarre circumstance where when faced with a common enemy we put aside differences but are right back to butting heads once again. I think USA peoples (not government/military) have no real qualms with Russia. I don't believe the Russian people have any real qualm with the USA either. That is backed up by the Cold War never going HOT. If Russia and USA could simply agree to disagree that would be best. I feel as if the threat sort of relies on military presence for both nations. USA puts a lot into the military and technology while Russia does the same and tensions escalate whereas the normal people tend to just not care so long as the tensions aren't their personal tensions.
@@glenncole7909
That is generally true with governments.
Also - you have blatantly disregarded asymmetry in those relations, although your tact warrants respect.
@@glenncole7909 there have only been three countries in US history who posed a threat to the United States mainland. Great Britain in 1812, Mexico in 1848, and Russia in 1962. Mexico lost half their land. Great Britain built US manufacturing, and was still carved up like a pumpkin after World War Two. Russia is the smallest it has been in the United States entire history.
If the United States views a country as ever having been a major threat to the United States mainland they are vindictive in an almost illogical way. The Soviet Union made the mistake of adding themselves to the list. For this reason the United States had rebuilt Japan and Germany despite differences because of geopolitics, Russia has been carved up despite geopolitics.
@@glenncole7909
It's not "the West" that Putin quite understandably wants to destroy, it's the evil mental cripples that have hijacked it. And he's not the only one. But you won't see the massive protests on the "free press" of "The West".