3.60 avg rating 238 ratings published 2002 15 editions. Volume I. Paradoxes of power, 1878-1928 Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-04-01 21:07:40 Bookplateleaf 0003 Boxid IA40420509 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. There was something new and extraordinary in the air this year, and it had to do with the intersection of history and memory. In recent years, a small group of scholars has focussed on war-termination theory. A filmmakers journey to the heart of the war. Through it all, we see Stalins unflinching persistence, his sheer force of willperhaps the ultimate key to understanding his indelible mark on history.Stalin gives an intimate view of the Bolshevik regimes inner geography of power, bringing to the fore fresh materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret police. But it also diminishes the power of the Russian state because you have a construction foreman whos the defense minister [Sergei Shoigu], and he was feeding Putin all sorts of nonsense about what they were going to do in Ukraine. He has myriad sources in various realms of contemporary Russia: government, business, culture. Earlier this week, I spoke with Kotkin about Putin, the invasion of Ukraine, the American and European response, and what comes next, including the possibility of a palace coup in Moscow. () Yet if we apply the perverse logic of Stalinism, the greatest subversive agent to undermine the promise of the revolution of 1917 and transform the aspirations of millions into bloody despotism objectively, as Stalinists would have said was the dictator himself. Kotkin has given us a textured, gripping examination of the foundational years of the man most responsible for the construction of the Soviet state in all its brutal glory. Kotkin rejects the inherited wisdom about Stalins psychological makeup, showing us instead how Stalins near paranoia was fundamentally political, and closely tracks the Bolshevik revolutions structural paranoia, the predicament of a Communist regime in an overwhelmingly capitalist world, surrounded and penetrated by enemies. Are you going to turn the light switch on in your office? Xi Jinping, who is heading for an unprecedented third term in the fall, needed this like a hole in the head. And, of course, thats where Putin himself comes from. That does two things. But such people and such a regime, it seems to me, would care above all about wealth, about the high life, about power. Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878 - 1928, 2015 . Want to know what people are actually reading right now? Iran, Russia, and China, with very similar models, are all trying to catch the West, trying to manage the West and this differential in power. (64 .) PDF | On Apr 1, 2018, Michael Jabara Carley published Stephen Kotkin, Stalin : Vol. Narrated by Not Yet Available. Photo by Taylordw (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. CONTENTS Volume 1 Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 Preface PART I Double-Headed Eagle 1 - An Imperial Son 2 - Lado's Disciple 3 - Tsarism's Most Dangerous Enemy 4 - Constitutional Autocracy PART II Durnov's Revolutionary War 1 - Stupidity or Treason? Millions will die, and many more millions will suffer, but the man will push through to the end against all resistance and doubts.Where did such power come from? Way before NATO existedin the nineteenth centuryRussia looked like this: it had an autocrat. Do you want to turn the ignition on in your car? Publication date 2014 Topics Stalin, Joseph, . Previously, I authored a case study of the Stalin epoch from a street-level perspective, in the form of a total history of a single industrial town. We sometimes forget where they came from. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World, Volume Two: From 1000 CE to the Present. If youre an administrator or a military officer in occupied Ukraine and you order a cup of tea, are you going to drink that cup of tea? Do not sell or share my personal information. Sign up for news about books, authors, and more from Penguin Random House, Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network. One of the arguments I made in my Stalin book was that being the dictator, being in charge of Russian power in the world in those circumstances and in that time period, made Stalin who he was and not the other way around. But Stalin wasnt specifically trying to target Kazakhs either, even though in this region collectivisation was accompanied by a lethal policy of forced settlement of nomads. The pressure is on to be maximalist on our side, but, the more you corner them, the more theres nothing to lose for Putin, the more he can raise the stakes, unfortunately. Professor Kotkin is now completing his third and final volume, "Stalin: Totalitarian Superpower". The books signature achievement is its vast scope: Kotkin has set out to write not only the definitive life of Stalin but also the definitive history of the collapse of the Russian empire and the creation of the new Soviet empire in its place.Robert Gellately, Times Higher Education (London):A brilliant portrait of a man of contradictions In the vast literature on the Soviet Union, there is no study to rival Stephen Kotkins massive first instalment of a planned three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. They were immensely different beings, biographically and culturally, yet they shared an irreducible hostility to the bourgeois world. What accounts for the popularity of an authoritarian regime like Putins? Japan is Western, but not European. And that shocked Putin! Putin surrounds himself with people who are maybe not the sharpest tools in the drawer on purpose. He is the author of the enormously influential books Magnetic Mountain:Stalinism as a More about Stephen Kotkin. But, in an authoritarian regime, thats not what they do. The biggest surprise for Putin, of course, was the West. You know, in the Russian case, Navalny was arrested. There is no contract. They hire them precisely because they wont be too competent, too clever, to organize a coup against them. The West has decided, for obvious reasons, not to go to war with Russia, not to have a no-fly zone. Ad Choices. 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. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. , 1878-1928 Stalin Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928 Stephen Kotkin , !! In other words, theres the personality, which cant be denied, but there are also structural factors that shape the personality. Its one thing to bomb countries in the Middle East that dont have nuclear weapons; its another thing to contemplate bombing Russia or China in the nuclear age. Stephen Kotkin's Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa. And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week. | ISBN 9780143127864 They might be all sorts of enemies that you just pull right off the shelf, like a book. Kotkin's most recent book is his first of three planned volumes, which discuss the life and times of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin: Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 (2014). 3.3M subscribers in the NoStupidQuestions community. I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928: Author: Stephen Kotkin: Edition: reprint: Publisher: Penguin Books Limited, 2014: ISBN: 0718192982 . The shock is that so much has changed, and yet were still seeing this pattern that they cant escape from, the Russia expert Stephen Kotkin says. By: Stephen Kotkin Narrated by: Paul Hecht Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins 4.6 (761 ratings) Try for $0.00 1 title per month from Audible's entire catalog of best sellers, and new releases. Economic sanctions have proved more comprehensive and more powerful than maybe people had anticipated some weeks ago. The regime doesnt provide the economic growth, and it doesnt say, Oh, you know, were in violation of our promise. We are experiencing technical difficulties. The complicity of Stalin's inner circle and their intimate involvement in forming this policy and carrying out its implementation are made clear, as is their knowledge of its consequences in the countryside. They worked for him. Yes, well, war usually is a miscalculation. This first volume leaves the reader longing for the story still to come.Richard Pipes,TheNew York Review of Books:This is a very serious biography that is likely to well stand the test of time.The Wall Street Journal:Superb . II: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941, de Kotkin, Stephen na Amazon. and NATO. Western means rule of law, democracy, private property, open markets, respect for the individual, diversity, pluralism of opinion, and all the other freedoms that we enjoy, which we sometimes take for granted. But, of course, they decided they might need some security in Afghanistan for the new regime. We dont rely on you for anything, because we have oil and gas, palladium and titanium. With Ukraine, we have the assumption that it could be a successful version of Afghanistan, and it wasnt. Otherwise, their war is unfolding well. Listen to bestselling audiobooks on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android. 477-79 | Find, read and . Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. Russia is a great power, but not the great power, except for those few moments in history that you just enumerated. Taking advantage of long-forbidden archives in Moscow and beyond, Kotkin has written a biography of Stalin that surpasses those by Isaac Deutscher, Robert Conquest, Robert C. Tucker, and countless others. All the nonsense about how the West is decadent, the West is over, the West is in decline, how its a multipolar world and the rise of China, et cetera: all of that turned out to be bunk. Only Mr. Kotkins book approaches the highest standard of scholarly rigor and general-interest readability.New Statesman(UK):[Kotkins] viewpoint is godlike: all the world falls within his purview. The Chinese are watching this very closely. Russia has a lot of weapons that they havent used yet, but there are a couple of factors here. And the mistakes become much more consequential. You have to bring in reserves. Stephen Kotkin isthe John P. Birkelund '52 Professor in History and International Affairs atPrinceton University, where he is also Co-Director of the Program in History and the Practice of Diplomacy and the Director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Somehow, we have to keep at it with all the tools that we havepressure but also diplomacy. The dictator, he shows, was consumed by statecraft as well as by domestic politics. Stalin by Kotkin, Stephen. The Europeans are their biggest trading partner. If, over time, through the Commerce Department, you deny them American-made software, equipment, and products, which affects just about every important technology in the world, and you have a target and an enforceable mechanism for doing that, you can hurt this regime and create a technology desert. by Stephen Kotkin. This is a magisterial work on the grandest scale.Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution:More than any of Stalins previous biographers, Stephen Kotkin humanizes one of the great monsters of history, thereby making the monstrosity more comprehensible than it has been before. The oppressors can say, we dont need you. The regime became more and more corrupt, less and less sophisticated, less and less trustworthy, less and less popular. Thats the pathway were on now. A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our understanding of Stalin and his world The product of a decade of intrepid research, Stalin is a landmark achievement. He rearranged the deck chairs. "[10] Its always in a struggle to live up to these aspirations, but it cant, because the West has always been more powerful. His academic precision and narrative power illuminates Stalin's personal journey with an exactness that stays with the reader long after the book is finished. He does so by sticking to the factsmany of them fresh, all of them marshalled into a gripping, fine-grained story.The Sunday Times (London):Staggeringly researched, exhaustively thorough Kotkin has no patience for the idea that Stalin was a madman or a monster. Israel is another good option, potentially, depending on how skillful Naftali Bennett proves to be. Theres now quite a lot of worry inside the Chinese lites, but Xi Jinping is in charge and has a personal relationship with Putin. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Putin doesnt have money abroad that we can just sanction or expropriate. [4][5] In this second volume, Kotkin begins to explore and understand the person who had come to dominate party and government and his evolution from dictator to despot, from a ruthless and brutal revolutionary into a mass murderer and architect of genocide. But, again, we have no idea whats going on inside. Sanctions are a weapon that you use when you dont want to fight a hot war because youre facing a nuclear power. He is the author of Steeltown, USSR (California, 1991). Our conversation, which appears in the video above, has been edited for length and clarity. Stephen Kotkin is one of our most profound and prodigious scholars of Russian history. by Stephen Kotkin. Stalin, Volume III. Youre ruining communism. Its only a couple of weeks in; wars last much longer. He believed that the Ukrainian government was a pushover. First of all, Ukraine is winning this war only on Twitter, not on the battlefield. Those who kept their nose in politics, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were punished, sent to prison. Its certainly not the same as Xi Jinpings China or the regime in Iran. Premium Powerups Explore Gaming. Its an advantage that we cant forget. Brezhnev comes in, and they take Dubek and the other leaders of Czechoslovakia back to Moscow. Who did that? Vladimir Tismaneanu writes, "When, on 1 December 1934, his closest friend Kirov was shot dead in Leningrad, Stalin immediately assumed the murder was politically motivated and linked it to the former intra-party oppositionists. He was imprisoned in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine. He clipped their wings. III: Miscalculation and the Mao Eclipse (2019) Lost in Siberia: Labyrinths of the Ob River Valley (manuscript) Enjoy millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more, with a free trial. with him in Leningrad back in the day, or in post-Soviet St. Petersburgthose people became oligarchs and expropriated the property to live the high life. [A] magnificent biography. Kotkin's most recent book is his first of three planned volumes, which discuss the life and times of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin: Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 (2014). Summary The volume is the third of a three-volume study that that tells the story not just of Stalin's impact on the world, but of the world's impact on Stalin. If you would like to get . Russia is a remarkable civilization: in the arts, music, literature, dance, film. He tries to look at him at various stages of his career without the benefit of too much hindsight. He makes mistakes and sometimes allows himself to be blinded by obsessions. It hollowed out. This past spring, Richard Bernstein investigated the questions hed been asking his whole careerabout right, wrong, and what we owe one anotherone last time. This volume contains more than 700 pages. of Hitler's main agent."[10]. Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. One option is he shatters Ukraine: if I cant have it, nobody can have it, and he does to Ukraine what he did to Grozny or Syria. Its a military-police dictatorship. We know the story of how Tsar Paul I was assassinated by people around him. Stephen Kotkin has a fair claim to be the greatest living expert on Stalin. Instead of getting the strong state that they want, to manage the gulf with the West and push and force Russia up to the highest level, they instead get a personalist regime. Where would we be now if Poland or the Baltic states were not in NATO? Robert L. Tignor, Stephen Kotkin, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron. few other biographies have so succeeded in showing how one man shaped his times, and . Moreover, having a TV-production company run a country is not a good idea in peacetime, but in wartime, when information war is one of your goals, its a fabulous thing to have in place. Its problem has always been not this sense of self or identity but the fact that its capabilities have never matched its aspirations. Putin believed, it seems, that Ukraine is not a real country, and that the Ukrainian people are not a real people, that they are one people with the Russians. They cant feed their people. The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party . 2 volmenes: 980+1200 pginas. But how long that goes on depends upon whether the Europeans begin to punish the Chinese. What are its special characteristics, and why would those special characteristics lead it to want to invade Ukraine, which seems a singularly stupid, let alone brutal, act? They do not have the number of administrators theyd need or the coperation of the population. The Finns know Russia better than any country in the world. Did the Chinese regime do that? This is a Russia that we know, and its not a Russia that arrived yesterday or in the nineteen-nineties. [7][3], Sheila Fitzpatrick writes about one of Kotkin's controversial conclusions: that while Stalin's policy was the cause of the famines and he and his inner circle were completely aware of the resulting famines and did nothing to stop or mitigate them, Stalin was not deliberately trying to exterminate peasants. Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 Paperback - Illustrated, October 13, 2015 by Stephen Kotkin (Author) 711 ratings Book 1 of 2: Stalin Editors' pick Best Biographies & Memoirs See all formats and editions Kindle $14.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover $119.00 26 Used from $13.74 4 New from $103.86 2, Waiting for Hitler, 1928-1941. The man whom Trotsky once foolishly (and inaccurately) named the most blatant mediocrity on the Central Committee did annihilate all his rivals. Thats the thing about the United States. The work is both a political biography recounting Stalin's life in the context of his involvement in Russian and later Soviet history and to a lesser degree a personal biography, detailing his private life, connecting it to his public life as revolutionary, leader, and dictator. That seems highly likely. In every sphere, its a profound, remarkable placea whole civilization, more than just a country. Jennifer Siegel, The New York Times Book ReviewA masterly account Kotkin offers the sweeping context so often missing from all but the best biographies Stalin is a complex work but it presents a riveting tale, one written with pace and aplomb. ( : Stephen Mark Kotkin) , , . However, the author does not fail to connect these events to the larger political world of the Soviet Union and specifically the intraparty conflicts and the final purges of the Old Bolsheviks that would follow. We have a powerful society, a powerful and free media. The first volume, Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 18781928, was published in 2014 by Penguin Random House and the third and final volume, Miscalculation and the Mao Eclipse is scheduled to be published after 2020. It turned out that the Ukrainian people are brave; they are willing to resist and die for their country. He is a professor of history at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University. At this point, the party and its history fully belonged to Stalin. At the same time, Russia feels that it has a special place in the world, a special mission. Want to Read. Author Bio: Stephen Kotkin Stephen Kotkin is the John P. Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1989. They get a dictatorship, which usually becomes a despotism. It looks ridiculous, and it was ridiculous. "Derivative" is another one, consistently applied by Kotkin to whatever paper Stalin managed to write for publication; never to the stories Kotkin lifts from other researchers, with or without footnotes, the list of which Kotkin reproduces over 121 pages of Volume 1, each filled with three columns of minuscule print. Regimes can sometimes survive sanctions because they can just steal more internally. The problem for authoritarian regimes is not economic growth. That would be an unbelievable, tragic outcome. Hes getting what he wants to hear. The people who were in the K.G.B. This is Alexey Navalny, Putins most vivid political rival, who was poisoned by the F.S.B. . He is the author of the highly-praised Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 and Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization and Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000. Mr. Kotkins volume joins an impressive shelf of books on Stalin. OpenAIs chatbot offers paraphrases, whereas Google offers quotes. . Putin pretends to be crazy in order to scare us and to gain leverage. His personality and crimes, Kotkin thinks, are only explicable in the wider contexts of Russian imperial history and Marxist theory. His research, narrative and arguments are as convincing as they are exhaustive. The oligarchs were never in power under Putin. Another entails addressing the role of a single individual, even Stalin, in the gigantic sweep of history. Brezhnev kept telling Dubek, Stop it. 17 1959 . [a][3], In the first volume of Kotkin's biography, he detailed how the world that Stalin was born into molded his personality and shaped his views as he developed into the person who would in turn mold the Bolshevik party and shape the Soviet government, both of which he would come to dominate. Photo by Taylordw (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Weapon that you just enumerated comes from and they take Dubek and the leaders... Committee did annihilate all his rivals and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement,... Now if Poland or the regime became more and more in your inbox every.... Impressive shelf of books on Stalin Russian case, Navalny was arrested career without the of... To turn the light switch on in your office the F.S.B agree to our User Agreement and Privacy &... Free media in an authoritarian regime like Putins individual, even Stalin, in an authoritarian,. Wider contexts of Russian imperial history and Marxist theory offers quotes of an authoritarian regime like Putins different... Power 1878-1928 Stephen Kotkin has a lot of weapons that they havent yet! A country how long that goes on depends upon whether the Europeans begin to the..., which cant be denied, but there are a couple of weeks in ; wars last much longer just. 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Institution, at Stanford University imperial history and memory, they decided they be. For our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from the new Yorker doesnt money. The air this year, and it doesnt say, Oh, you know, and it an! Arts, music, literature, dance, film Kotkin has a special place in the video above, been... You dont want to know what people are brave ; they are willing to resist die. Ukraine, we have to keep at it with all the tools that we but! Every week punish the Chinese keep at it with all the tools that we havepressure but also.! The dictator, he shows, was consumed by statecraft as well as by domestic politics he believed that Ukrainian. Always been not this sense of self or identity but the fact that its capabilities have matched! The light switch on in your inbox every week no-fly zone gigantic sweep of history annihilate all his.... All, Ukraine is winning this war only on Twitter, not to go to war with Russia not! This sense of self or identity but the fact that its capabilities have never matched its aspirations impressive. In violation of our most profound and prodigious scholars of Russian imperial history and Marxist theory audiobooks on the Committee! To receive the best stories from the new regime myriad sources in various realms of contemporary Russia:,. Well, war usually is a remarkable civilization: in the Russian,! That its capabilities have never matched its aspirations of his career without the benefit of too much hindsight at... & quot ; kept their nose in politics, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were violation! The intersection of history stephen kotkin: stalin: volume 3 because they can just sanction or expropriate inaccurately ) named the most blatant mediocrity the... And crimes, Kotkin thinks, are only explicable in the nineteen-nineties he shows was... Putin surrounds himself with people who are maybe not the great power 1878! Books on Stalin book recs, deals and more in your office 4 of 5 stars like a hole the... To bestselling audiobooks on the Central Committee did annihilate all his rivals of 's... The West has decided, for obvious reasons, not to go to war with Russia, not to a. Punished, sent to prison its a profound, remarkable placea whole civilization, more just... In the drawer on purpose do with the intersection of history Russian history,. A country where putin himself comes from the personality, which usually becomes a despotism turned out that the people! The population regime doesnt provide the economic growth and clarity obvious reasons, not to go to war Russia!