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Uncommon Knowledge: Joseph Stalin — Waiting For Hitler
“If you’re interested in power, [if] you’re interested in how power is accumulated and exercised, and what the consequences are, the subject of Stalin is just unbelievably deep, it’s bottomless.” – Stephen Kotkin
In part two, Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941, discusses the relationship between Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler leading up to and throughout World War II. Kotkin describes what motivated Stalin to make the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Hitler and the consequences of his decision.
Kotkin dives into the history of the USSR and its relationship with Germany during WWII, analyzing the two leaders’ decisions, strategies, and thought processes. He explains Stalin’s and Hitler’s motivations to enter into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact even without the support of their respective regimes. Stalin’s goal was to defeat the West and he saw the pact as an opportunity to do so by driving a wedge between Germany and the capitalist West. Kotkin analyzes Stalin’s decisions leading up to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the disinformation Germany was feeding soviet spies to prevent Stalin from moving against Hitler first.
Recorded on January 25, 2018
Part One of this episode is here.
Published in General
Fascinating conversation, Peter! A way to study the history of that time, and the evil of Stalin in a different way. Thank you!
What stands out to me, particularly in the earlier part of that interview on The Terror, is how easy it is for a small group of people to coerce a much larger group into submission — even to the point of starvation, execution, and betrayal.
We see that again and again in the tyrannies of history. Victims march to their deaths, rather than overrun their armed captors so that some might live. Peasants submit what little food they have, knowing they will starve, rather than risk violence. Citizens falsely accuse their neighbors or spy on them to retain the barest remnants of freedom and security.
The 2nd Amendment is significant, but it should not make Americans feel safe as half their neighbors publicly engage in envy, hate, and wild collectivist fantasies every day. No matter how grossly our government intrudes on individual families and businesses on occasion, conservatives almost never defend their freedoms with violent force. Here too, majorities submit in fear of coordinated coercion.
This is interesting but I don’t buy the justification for some of Stalin’s actions. His purge of the Army and murder of most of his best generals encouraged Hitler to attack him. Stalin in 1941 needed the talents of a Tukhachevsky. He obviously was unavailable because he had been murdered in 1937. His murdering his best men may have terrorized everyone, but it made the Soviet regime much weaker. He was lucky that Zhukov was available, but he also came close to being purged.
Stalin’s gross incompetence needs to be emphasized more lest his own reputation be rehabilitated. In 2015, I played a tournament chess game against GM Ivanov who was born in the Soviet Union. He told me after the game that at least one prominent Russian GM praises Stalin. Obviously, we can’t let fears of abuse alter out historical interpretations, but the economic incompetence of Stalin needs to be emphasized. Stalin towered over the other Soviet leaders in 1941 at least partially because he had purged most of the people of ability. Future rocket pioneer Korolev was sent to the Gulag. Soviet losses of 20 million in WW2 and the weakness of Russia today can be traced to Stalin’s mad policies.