Stephen Kotkin is a professor of history at Princeton university and one of the great historians of our time, specializing in Russian and Soviet history. He has written many books on Stalin and the Soviet Union including the first 2 of a 3 volume work on Stalin, and he is currently working on volume 3.
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Episode Links: Stalin (book, vol 1): https://amzn.to/2FjdLF2 Stalin (book, vol 2): https://amzn.to/2tqyjc3
Here's the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 - Introduction 03:10 - Do all human beings crave power? 11:29 - Russian people and authoritarian power 15:06 - Putin and the Russian people 23:23 - Corruption in Russia 31:30 - Russia's future 41:07 - Individuals and institutions 44:42 - Stalin's rise to power 1:05:20 - What is the ideal political system? 1:21:10 - Questions for Putin 1:29:41 - Questions for Stalin 1:33:25 - Will there always be evil in the world? https://lexfridman.com/stephen-kotkin/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stephen-kotkin
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