Why Does Joseph Stalin Matter?

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  • Опубликовано: 17 май 2024
  • Recorded on January 25, 2018.
    “Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, creator of great power, and destroyer of tens of millions of lives …” Thus begins this episode of Uncommon Knowledge, which dives into the biography of Joseph Stalin. This episode’s guest, Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941(www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting..., examines the political career of Joseph Stalin in the years leading up to World War II, his domination over the Soviet Union, and the terror he inspired by the Great Purge from 1936-38.
    “Why does Joseph Stalin matter?” is a key question for Kotkin, as he explains the history of the Soviet Union and Stalin's enduring impact on his country and the world. Kotkin argues that Stalin is the “gold standard for dictatorships” in regard to the amount of power he managed to obtain and wield throughout his lifetime. Stalin stands out because not only was he able to build a massive amount of military power, he managed to stay in power for three decades, much longer than any comparable dictator.
    Kotkin and Robinson discuss collectivization and communism and how Stalin’s regime believed it had to eradicate capitalism within the USSR even in regions where capitalism was bringing economic success to the peasants, with the potential of destabilizing the regime. This led to the Great Purge, a campaign of political repression that resulted in the exile and execution of millions of people.
    For the full transcript go to
    www.hoover.org/research/why-d...
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Комментарии • 923

  • @jlondon158
    @jlondon158 3 года назад +274

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

  • @MoralistaDefinitivo
    @MoralistaDefinitivo 6 лет назад +457

    This guy would need a 10 hour interview.

    • @AgendaFiles
      @AgendaFiles 6 лет назад +23

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

  • @bastiatintheandes4958
    @bastiatintheandes4958 6 лет назад +649

    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.

  • @jayeye4798
    @jayeye4798 Год назад +190

    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
    @welderella 4 года назад +621

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

  • @bobjenkins4925
    @bobjenkins4925 6 лет назад +395

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

    • @PresterMike
      @PresterMike 5 лет назад +35

      Millennial here. I love it

  • @chegadesuade
    @chegadesuade 6 лет назад +336

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

  • @welderella
    @welderella 4 года назад +544

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

  • @OSCOCAT
    @OSCOCAT Год назад +57

    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
    @calculatedmasochism7058 3 года назад +12

    When Stephen Kotkin speaks, a wise man shuts up

  • @cybercab
    @cybercab 5 лет назад +566

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

    • @doctorgman1
      @doctorgman1 5 лет назад +68

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

    • @hanskloss7726
      @hanskloss7726 4 года назад +85

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

  • @garyjohnston8543
    @garyjohnston8543 5 лет назад +207

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

  • @chuckymcchuckface8768
    @chuckymcchuckface8768 4 года назад +47

    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!

  • @southernc4919
    @southernc4919 5 лет назад +149

    this should have 500,000,000 views and every university professor should see this

  • @CoronaryArteryDisease.
    @CoronaryArteryDisease. 5 лет назад +184

    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

  • @Rasectos
    @Rasectos 6 лет назад +862

    Joe Pesci is my favorite Stalin scholar.

    • @lukecage9836
      @lukecage9836 6 лет назад +37

      Rasectos lol now all I hear is Pesci 😂.

    • @shaolin89
      @shaolin89 6 лет назад +26

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

    • @Digiphex
      @Digiphex 6 лет назад +23

      A Buick never had positraction.

    • @bazzatheblue
      @bazzatheblue 6 лет назад +29

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

    • @Maelli535
      @Maelli535 6 лет назад +28

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

  • @alekseysoldatenkov5675
    @alekseysoldatenkov5675 5 лет назад +69

    This is ABSOLUTELY fascinating. Thank you for uploading.

  • @baxter987
    @baxter987 5 лет назад +37

    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

  • @papastalin4534
    @papastalin4534 6 лет назад +1073

    Why do I matter? You're going to Siberia

    • @VertigoX26
      @VertigoX26 5 лет назад +31

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

    • @DialecticalMaterialismRocks
      @DialecticalMaterialismRocks 5 лет назад +22

      Read Grover Furr

    • @vertxxgg
      @vertxxgg 5 лет назад +7

      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
      @kyleshick5467 5 лет назад +12

      Papa Stalin LOL

    • @soyusmaximus7176
      @soyusmaximus7176 5 лет назад +24

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

  • @4metoknow
    @4metoknow Год назад +5

    Masterful - Joe Pesci look alike/sound alike is the bomb!

  • @zachstott8354
    @zachstott8354 3 года назад +16

    Would love another video with Kotkin - he's brilliant

  • @winmine0327
    @winmine0327 6 лет назад +87

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

  • @b.terenceharwick3222
    @b.terenceharwick3222 5 лет назад +23

    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.

  • @Jessica-tz3wb
    @Jessica-tz3wb 4 года назад +69

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

  • @trolltoll2159
    @trolltoll2159 5 лет назад +74

    "He always brings up Stalin" - Norm Macdonald

    • @squamish4244
      @squamish4244 5 лет назад +2

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

    • @ClaimClam
      @ClaimClam 5 лет назад +7

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

  • @Nathantodd2012
    @Nathantodd2012 5 лет назад +45

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

  • @jomgelborn
    @jomgelborn 6 лет назад +15

    Thank you for this great interview.

  • @cavewebster5881
    @cavewebster5881 6 лет назад +14

    Many, many thanks for this great content!

  • @lashachakhunashvili1399
    @lashachakhunashvili1399 5 лет назад +10

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

  • @freekheijting7346
    @freekheijting7346 5 лет назад +57

    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
      @AgendaFiles 5 лет назад +4

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

  • @nryle
    @nryle 6 лет назад +48

    Great Interview. Cannot wait for the next part.

  • @Dracandros76
    @Dracandros76 4 года назад +62

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

  • @chickenwretch
    @chickenwretch 6 лет назад +52

    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?

  • @cecilefox9136
    @cecilefox9136 4 года назад +82

    Absolutely fascinating history.

  • @Reconing1
    @Reconing1 5 лет назад +25

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

  • @kidwidacake
    @kidwidacake 6 лет назад +34

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

  • @LinusPerssonsTube
    @LinusPerssonsTube 5 лет назад +64

    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.

  • @knockshinnoch1950
    @knockshinnoch1950 4 года назад +44

    Brilliant mind, fascinating discussion

  • @PqV72MT4
    @PqV72MT4 5 лет назад +61

    This guy is brilliant.

  • @tomjohn8733
    @tomjohn8733 4 года назад +4

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

  • @victorydaydeepstate
    @victorydaydeepstate 5 лет назад +9

    I must buy this book

  • @squamish4244
    @squamish4244 5 лет назад +43

    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.

  • @transkryption
    @transkryption 3 года назад +1

    great interviews!

  • @aasldkfja
    @aasldkfja 5 лет назад +8

    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.

  • @IllicitGreen
    @IllicitGreen 6 лет назад +265

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

    • @JoshuaSwan
      @JoshuaSwan 5 лет назад +11

      IllICITGRYNE I’m proud of you!

    • @khrachvikkhrachvik7049
      @khrachvikkhrachvik7049 5 лет назад +7

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

    • @squamish4244
      @squamish4244 5 лет назад +10

      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
      @just83542 5 лет назад +31

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

  • @Mdigi1982
    @Mdigi1982 6 лет назад +20

    Always great to hear from Stephen Kotkin!

    • @HighSpeedNoDrag
      @HighSpeedNoDrag 5 лет назад +1

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

  • @mattwernecke2342
    @mattwernecke2342 5 лет назад +6

    look forward to reading your books.

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece4227 5 лет назад +4

    AMAZING VIDEO LOVE YOU ❤❤❤

  • @androidzombie4769
    @androidzombie4769 6 лет назад +74

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

  • @johnnantz16
    @johnnantz16 5 лет назад +26

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

  • @jerrystephens9143
    @jerrystephens9143 3 года назад +2

    so thankful for this

  • @Steve-Richter
    @Steve-Richter 4 года назад +2

    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?

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece4227 4 года назад +5

    AMAZING VIDEO BRAVO ❤😍❤

  • @victorydaydeepstate
    @victorydaydeepstate 5 лет назад +15

    This is wonderful

    • @AgendaFiles
      @AgendaFiles 5 лет назад +1

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

  • @iknowwhatsup2880
    @iknowwhatsup2880 4 года назад +37

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

  • @vangk30
    @vangk30 4 года назад +15

    FASCINATNG interview!! Very revealing.

  • @benwitt6902
    @benwitt6902 5 лет назад +38

    Stalin, hero of the left.

  • @Drumsgoon
    @Drumsgoon 6 лет назад +29

    Great interview, very clear answers.

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece4227 4 года назад

    THANKS FOR THE VIDEO ❤❤❤❤

  • @jgribhamnz
    @jgribhamnz 3 года назад +5

    Ive read robert service stuff, and stalin by montefiore (amazing!!!), but heck this guy sounds like he may have a book too top them all. Very astute analysis, great interview

  • @rickpur100
    @rickpur100 5 лет назад +8

    Dr. Kotkin probably does a great Joe Pesci impression

  • @shadforthw3535
    @shadforthw3535 4 года назад +42

    Can you imagine American teachers teaching this? No way

  • @AndyMak-jq1py
    @AndyMak-jq1py 3 года назад

    Excellent interview

  • @coreyclamp
    @coreyclamp 5 лет назад +33

    "...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
      @HighSpeedNoDrag 5 лет назад +6

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

  • @giorgimerabishvili8194
    @giorgimerabishvili8194 5 лет назад +7

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

  • @stevecoscia
    @stevecoscia 5 лет назад +6

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

  • @vocalbunny7427
    @vocalbunny7427 5 лет назад +3

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

  • @lukecage9836
    @lukecage9836 6 лет назад +14

    BEST INTERVIEWER IN THE BUSINESS!!!

  • @installwebercarburetorsona6159
    @installwebercarburetorsona6159 6 лет назад +3

    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.

  • @MrRichiekaye
    @MrRichiekaye 6 лет назад +129

    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
      @Drumsgoon 6 лет назад

      A few great speeches of him online

    • @pendejo6466
      @pendejo6466 6 лет назад +1

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

    • @AgendaFiles
      @AgendaFiles 6 лет назад +3

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

    • @frankmaitland1254
      @frankmaitland1254 6 лет назад +1

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

    • @socialminds9894
      @socialminds9894 5 лет назад +1

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

  • @mariaspencersalt8946
    @mariaspencersalt8946 3 года назад +1

    Thank you

  • @gregswanepoel5710
    @gregswanepoel5710 5 лет назад +4

    clear good speaker

  • @fatlardshowernow234
    @fatlardshowernow234 6 лет назад +13

    That was great. Peter is an excellent interviewer

  • @vitareid
    @vitareid 3 года назад +3

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

  • @Run.Ran.Run1
    @Run.Ran.Run1 5 лет назад +13

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

    • @VeraMaier
      @VeraMaier 5 лет назад +1

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

  • @michaelkrochek8823
    @michaelkrochek8823 5 лет назад +16

    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)

  • @francescop1
    @francescop1 5 лет назад +34

    Millennial crew REPRESENTIN🤘

  • @callmedeno
    @callmedeno 6 лет назад +34

    best interviewer in the fuuuckin game

  • @StopFear
    @StopFear 5 лет назад +1

    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.

  • @sandorfintor
    @sandorfintor 3 года назад

    Thank You.

  • @soapbxprod
    @soapbxprod 6 лет назад +8

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

  • @BuceGar
    @BuceGar 5 лет назад +4

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

  • @interianesq
    @interianesq 6 лет назад +2

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

    • @AgendaFiles
      @AgendaFiles 6 лет назад

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

  • @skwest
    @skwest 4 года назад +3

    Refreshing to hear _enormity_ used correctly (notwithstanding its awful significance) and within the proper context.

  • @DenverDeathrock
    @DenverDeathrock 5 лет назад +15

    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
      @goldsher 5 лет назад +1

      Jason West sociopathic, perhaps narcissistic borderline

  • @guitarsword1
    @guitarsword1 4 года назад +28

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

  • @ithiellyisrael
    @ithiellyisrael 5 лет назад

    What camera do you shoot this show with?

  • @Gbd279
    @Gbd279 5 лет назад +8

    where's part two

  • @jancoil4886
    @jancoil4886 5 лет назад +21

    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.

  • @alanaadams7440
    @alanaadams7440 5 лет назад +3

    Very informative I learned a lot, Thank you

  • @terenceboris851
    @terenceboris851 4 года назад +2

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

  • @malvolio01
    @malvolio01 4 года назад +6

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

  • @franz_stigler
    @franz_stigler 6 лет назад +4

    ive been looking forward to this

    • @AgendaFiles
      @AgendaFiles 6 лет назад

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

  • @guygeorgesvoet4177
    @guygeorgesvoet4177 2 года назад +7

    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

  • @AgendaFiles
    @AgendaFiles 6 лет назад +2

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

  • @bearfoot843
    @bearfoot843 5 лет назад +4

    That’s a hell of a peer group

  • @welderella
    @welderella 4 года назад +21

    “Even though it was working””.......reminds me of people who would rather a recession than see Trump succeed......

  • @dimitriosfromgreece4227
    @dimitriosfromgreece4227 5 лет назад +5

    LOVE YOU ❤

  • @McIntyreBible
    @McIntyreBible 11 месяцев назад +1

    26:54, Kotkin explains The Great Terror.

  • @6663000
    @6663000 Год назад

    Fascinating