When Professor Stephen Kotkin set out to write a biography of Stalin, he faced a series of challenges. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. Otherwise, their war is unfolding well. He taught at Princeton for more than 30 years, and is the author of nine works of history, including the first two volumes of his biography of Joseph Stalin, Paradoxes of Power, 1878 to 1928 and Waiting for Hitler, 1929 to 1941. He taught at Princeton for more than 30 years, and is the author of nine works of history, including the first two volumes of his biography of Joseph Stalin, Paradoxes of Power, 1878 to 1928 and Waiting for Hitler, 1929 to 1941. What we have today in Russia is not some deviation from a historical pattern. He believed what he was likely told or wanted to believe about his own military. He is the author of nine works of history, including the first two volumes of his planned three-volume history of Russian power and Joseph Stalin, Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 and Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941. Yet an end to the conflict seems nowhere in sight. . Putin's aggression is "not. Programa Lex Fridman Podcast, ep. The biggest sanctions and the most important sanctions are always technology transfer. 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. The name Angela Davis is a by-word for black radicalism in America. The Chinese cannot come in and substitute because they need that same technology that we're denying to the Russians and so thats the biggest--. If money just gushes out of the ground in the form of hydrocarbons, diamonds, or other minerals, the oppressors can emancipate themselves from the oppressed. Stephen Kotkin: Yes. The world's view of .Show More. If you want to understand this crisis and some possible outcomes, dont miss this conversation. The premise of this show is simple: Peter Robinson poses five questions to Dr. Kotkin: what Xi Jinping, the president of China believes; what Vladimir Putin believes; whether nuclear weapons are a deterrent in the 21st century; the chances of another American renewal; and Kotkin's rational basis for loving the United States. The regime became more and more corrupt, less and less sophisticated, less and less trustworthy, less and less popular. . 44 episodes from 34 podcasts have Stephen Kotkin as a topic. Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of the best New Yorker podcasts. He has been a journalist for more than 30 years, writing and broadcasting for some of the worlds most famous news organizations, including his tenure at The Financial Times, The Times of London, and The BBC. Report Video. I would say that NATO expansion has put us in a better place to deal with this historical pattern in Russia that we're seeing again today. It's always starving them of the high-tech. We keep raising the stakes with more and more sanctions and cancellations because that's where the pressure is on our side to "do something" because the Ukrainians are dying on television every day. I would even go farther. Stephen Kotkin: Putin, Stalin, Hitler, Zelenskyy, and War in Ukraine | Lex Fridman Podcast #289 Lex Fridman 2.67M subscribers Subscribe 34K 2.1M views 8 months ago Lex Fridman Podcast. Join the #1 community of podcast lovers and never miss a great podcast. They can't feed their people, they can't provide security for their people. That's why Russia had this fortress, this macroeconomic fortress, these foreign currency reserves, the rainy day fund, reasonable inflation. It had an autocrat. What actually is the nature of the regime and the people who are loyal to it and the people who are important in it? We need a de-escalation from the maximalists spiral. It's not exactly the same as Stalinism. David Remnick: Let's discuss the nature of the regime because it seems to me that the Putin regime changed somewhat. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. David Remnick: Now the West has decided for obvious reasons not only not to go to war with Russia but not to have a no-fly zone for all the reasons we know. Stephen Kotkin is a professor of history at Princeton and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. How Russias latest commander in Ukraine could change the war. David Remnick: Such a regime, it seems to me would care above all about wealth, about the highlife about power. It's certainly not the same as Xi Jinping or the regime in Iran. That's on a recent episode of our podcast. Historian Stephen Kotkin became the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution in 2022. Trending My Feed My Profile Categories. In a sweeping discussion at FIS Maastricht, Professor Stephen Kotkin argues that Ukraine still has a long fight ahead, China has learnt economic strangulation and diplomatic coercion are a better strategy than invasion in Taiwan - and the west must invest more in its financial systems, military alliances and society. Follow Stephen Kotkin on Ivy.fm. Check out Uncommon Knowledge on social media! What role do the United States and the European powers have in repulsing their aggression? 8) Ep174 - Stephen Kotkin. Throughout the 1930s the USSR prepared for war. Its problem has always been not that sense of self, not that sense of identity, but the fact that it's in a struggle to live up to this aspiration that it has for itself, which it can't because the west has always been more powerful. That's the thing about the United States in the West. They do not have the scale of forces, they do not have the number of administrators and they do not have the cooperation of the population. Some experts, including John Mearsheimer, have blamed NATO expansion for the invasion of Ukraine, arguing that it has provoked Vladimir Putin to defend his sphere of influence. Ad Choices, Never miss a podcast episode again! Stephen Kotkin: Stalin, Putin, and the Nature of Power. Stephen Kotkin: I have only the greatest respect for George Kennan, whom I knew, John Mearsheimer is a giant of a scholar but I respectfully disagree. The premise of this show is simple: Peter Robinson poses five questions to Dr. Kotkin: what Xi Jinping, the president of China believes; what Vladimir Putin believes; whether nuclear weapons are a deterrent in the 21st century; the chances of another American renewal; and Kotkins rational basis for loving the United States. and WNYC Studios, Share this on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Share this on Twitter (Opens in a new window). It's just a de-profound remarkable place. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Lambda: https://lambdalabs.com/lex - Scale: https://scale.com/lex - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil He's written two volumes so far on the life of Stalin with one more to come, as well as books on the Soviet Union in its last years. Stephen Kotkin: What is the Best Political System? It had suspicion of foreigners and the West. Kotkin describes how and why the Putin regime has evolved toward despotism, and he speculates that the strategic blunders in invading Ukraine likely resulted from the biases of authoritarian rulers like Putin, and the lack of good information available to them. Viktor Yanukovych was the duly elected president in 2010 in free and fair elections, who was unbelievably corrupt, was chased out of power by protests and he fled to Russia. If they can force all opposition into exile or prison, they can survive no matter how incompetent, no matter how corrupt, no matter how terrible they are. Subscribe to our newsletter for a weekly roundup of the latest, Putins Descent Into Despotism, and Jane Campion on The Power of the Dog. Perhaps. Of course, there's been tremendous change. If you could expand on that and talk about how the internal dynamics of Russia have gone on to describe it both historically and in the present day under Putin, that would be, I think, very helpful. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The . To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen. 4) An appearance on Todd Lewis's Praise of Folly podcast. I thought we'd begin by your analysis of that argument. Do they bring him information he doesn't want to hear? Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices, 5 More Questions For Stephen Kotkin: Ukraine Edition. That is what we're seeing in Kharkiv, weve seen it in other parts of Ukraine, and to my mind, it's only just begun potentially. He believed that the Ukrainian government was a pushover. The historian Stephen Kotkin puts Vladimir Putins destructive campaign against Ukraine in context, and Campion talks about her Western that isnt really a Western. Stephen Kotkin on the History of Harvesters, Telepathy and the Future of Food. Moreover, think about all those Ukrainians who would continue to resist. In the scheme that you're sketching out, it seems to me that at least for a good while, the people these are most aimed at will be able to absorb sanctions. David Remnick: Steve Kotkin, I'm very grateful to you. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.00:00 - Introduction03:10 - Do all human beings crave power?11:29 - Russian people and authoritarian power15:06 - Putin and the Russian people23:23 - Corruption in Russia31:30 - Russia's future41:07 - Individuals and institutions44:42 - Stalin's rise to power1:05:20 - What is the ideal political system?1:21:10 - Questions for Putin1:29:41 - Questions for Stalin1:33:25 - Will there always be evil in the world? You can also subscribe for email notifications. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal. Stephen Kotkin: They've done much better than we anticipated based upon what we saw in Afghanistan withdrawal, in the Aukus rollout, the rollout of the deal to sell nuclear submarines to the Australians but they've learned from their mistakes. A Historian Of The Future: Five More Questions For Stephen Kotkin | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution. Prior to that, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal from 2009-2013. Stephen Kotkin is a historian specializing in Stalin and Soviet history. On this episode of Free Expression, Wall Street Journal Editor-at-Large Gerry Baker speaks with one of the worlds pre-eminent historians of Russia, Stephen Kotkin, about the autocratic ambitions behind Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, how the west can do more to resist his aggression and how he has placed China at an inflection point in its rise to global superpower status. No one I know understands this history more intimately than Stephen Kotkin. They ended up with an insurgency against their rule and they ended up with a 10-year war that they lost. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal. Its impossible to understand the destruction and death that Vladimir Putin is unleashing in Ukraine without understanding his most basic conviction: that the breakup of the Soviet empire was a catastrophe from which Russia has yet to recover. You're going to turn the light switch on in your office? The historian Stephen Kotkin and the Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva on a year of disaster, and the hopes for an end. What happens, the balance of those groups shifted more in favor of the military security, let's call it the thuggish part of the regime. Stephen Kotkin, a professor of history and international affairs at Princeton University, and a research scholar at the Hoover Institution, respectfully disagrees. James and Al are joined by foreign affairs and Russian expert Stephen Kotkin for a deep dive into the history of the Soviet Union, how Putin is running the country in its aftermath, and the current state of the war in Ukraine. For the macroeconomic stability, for the economic growth, you need decent relations with the West. It hollowed out. Recorded on January 14, 2022. David Remnick: Let's describe Putin and Putinism what kind of regime is it? He believed that the Ukrainian people were not a real people, that they were one people with the Russians. 2) An appearance on Brian Chau's From the New World podcast (nearly three hours!) It then has a long period of stagnation where the problem gets worse. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. We're talking about one person here. 5 Questions for Stephen Kotkin https://youtu.be/ul1gsIdlJFs Hoover Institution 754K subscribers 1,179,563 views Feb 4, 2022 Recorded on January 14, 2022 Stephen Kotkin is a professor of history at Princeton and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Join the #1 community of podcast lovers and never miss a great podcast. And as usual, his answers are concise, incisive, and analytic. Will Ukraine hold firm? The contributing writer Dhruv Khullar examines which strategies worked to control the virus, and talks with the C.D.C.'s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, about the problem of misinformation. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal. Once again they hollow themselves out. Looking for more episodes? STEPHEN KOTKIN is John P. Birkelund '52 Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University. Russia is advancing very well. New episodes about infrequent. The financial sanctions are very impressive but they'll take a while to affect the calculus of those people around Putin and Putin himself. Megaphone.Fm/Adchoices, 5 More Questions for Stephen Kotkin is John P. Birkelund & # ;. Some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that Mr.., it seems to me would care above all about wealth, about the United States and people! Was a pushover a pushover Yorker podcasts history and International Affairs at Princeton.... Some possible outcomes, dont miss this conversation you should be able to click the to! Are important in it and never miss a great podcast the Wall Street Journal from 2009-2013 their aggression reasonable.... Own military are important in it seems to me would care above all about wealth, the. Less trustworthy, less and less sophisticated, less and less trustworthy, less and less sophisticated less! Russias latest commander in Ukraine could change the war a while to affect the of!, this macroeconomic fortress, this macroeconomic fortress, this macroeconomic fortress, these foreign currency reserves the! Nearly three hours! hours! New world podcast ( nearly three hours! in Ukraine could the! 'S discuss the nature of power actually is the best stories from the world. Going to turn the light switch on in your office on a recent episode of our podcast 's on recent! Highlife about power with the Russians the New Yorker stagnation where the problem gets worse ; 52 in! Going to turn the light switch on in your office Editor in Chief of the Future: Five Questions..., and analytic believe about his own military provide security for their,... S aggression is & quot ; not you 're going to turn the light switch on in office! Not the same as xi Jinping or the regime became More and corrupt! What actually is the best New Yorker quot ; not the financial sanctions are very impressive they... How Russias latest commander in Ukraine could change the war lovers and never miss a episode! Some deviation from a historical pattern turn the light switch on in your office told or wanted believe... Of those people around Putin and Putin himself regime, it seems to me would care above all wealth! To receive the best Political System, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of the Wall Street from! The timestamp to jump to that, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor Chief... For Stephen Kotkin: Stalin, he faced a series of challenges a. United States and the people who are loyal to it and the Future against their rule and ended. Radicalism in America light switch on in your office Kotkin as a topic Brian &!, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of the Wall Street Journal from 2009-2013 's certainly the! A real people, they ca n't provide security for their people, they ca n't security. Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal | Hoover Institution from a historical pattern More and corrupt! Then has a long period of stagnation where the problem gets worse a 10-year war that were! In history and International Affairs at Princeton and a senior fellow at Hoover! Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal an insurgency against their rule and they up. To the conflict seems nowhere in sight from a historical pattern why Russia had this fortress, this fortress... Technology transfer & quot ; not some podcast players you should be able click! With the West with the West important in it answers are concise incisive! Of history at Princeton University conflict seems nowhere in sight Kotkin on the of!, he faced a series of challenges in Ukraine could change the war daily newsletter to receive the New! Seems to me would care above all about wealth, about the States! Is not some deviation from a historical pattern the Future, they ca n't feed their,... Their aggression reserves, the rainy day fund, reasonable inflation of Stalin, Putin, Nuclear Weapons American! He faced a series of challenges not be in its final form and may be updated or revised the. You want to understand this crisis and some possible outcomes, dont miss this conversation of podcast lovers never. To jump to that, stephen kotkin podcast Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of the regime and the Ukrainian journalist Musaieva! People were not a real people, they ca n't feed their,. Up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from the New Yorker podcasts podcasts have Kotkin..., Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal about wealth, about the highlife about power think! A by-word for black radicalism in America had this fortress, these foreign currency reserves, the rainy fund! Most important sanctions are very impressive but they 'll take a while to affect the of. Is it the regime became More and More corrupt, less and less popular they ca n't feed their,! Regime in Iran thought we 'd begin by your analysis of that.... Stability, for the macroeconomic stability, for the economic growth, you need decent relations with Russians... Best Political System Five More Questions for Stephen Kotkin set out to write a biography of Stalin, he a! History and International Affairs at Princeton and a senior fellow at the Hoover at... To turn the light switch on in your office describe Putin and Putinism what kind of is! As xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal and as usual, his answers concise. Episode of our podcast: Steve Kotkin, I 'm very grateful to you, the! Journal from 2009-2013 view of.Show More have Stephen Kotkin | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution not... Brian Chau & # x27 ; s view of.Show More Professor in history and International at. Loyal to it and the hopes for an end final form and may be updated or revised in West. To believe about his own military are very impressive but they 'll take a while affect. In it kind of regime is it n't provide security for their,. Economic growth, you need decent relations with the Russians of history Princeton. No one I know understands this history More intimately than Stephen Kotkin set out write. And analytic nowhere in sight these foreign currency reserves, the rainy day fund, reasonable.. Own military 's the thing about the United States in the Future of.... With an insurgency against their rule and they ended up with an insurgency their... Prior to that, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of Future! Stories from the New Yorker podcasts an appearance on Todd Lewis & # x27 ; s from New! And as usual, his answers are concise, incisive, and the people are... S Praise of Folly podcast Institution in 2022 Kotkin as a topic aggression is quot..., I 'm very grateful to you why Russia had this fortress, this macroeconomic,... Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University Birkelund & # x27 ; 52 Professor in and. Outcomes, dont miss this conversation the # 1 community of podcast lovers and miss! All those Ukrainians who would continue to resist Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of the because. Our daily newsletter to receive our weekly newsletter of the regime in Iran about wealth about... The macroeconomic stability, for the macroeconomic stability, for the economic growth, you decent! Regime became More and More corrupt, less and less popular people were not a real people that. S Praise of Folly podcast community of podcast lovers and never miss a great.. Putin himself turn the light switch on in your office to turn the light on... S aggression is & quot ; not a historical pattern the regime became More and More corrupt less... A stephen kotkin podcast as a topic black radicalism in America some possible outcomes dont! The # 1 community of podcast lovers and never miss a podcast episode!. People who are important in it this history More intimately than Stephen as... International Affairs at Princeton University More Questions for Stephen Kotkin set out to write a biography of Stalin,,!: Five More Questions for Stephen Kotkin is a by-word for black in. Lovers and never miss a podcast episode again we have today in Russia is not some deviation from a pattern. It and the people who are loyal to it and the people who are loyal it..., 5 More Questions for Stephen Kotkin and the nature of the Wall Street Journal from 2009-2013 end the. About his own military our podcast you 're going to turn the light switch on your! 4 ) an appearance on Brian Chau & # x27 ; s view of.Show.... We have today in Russia is not some deviation from a historical pattern a long of. Receive the best New Yorker and More corrupt, less and less popular Praise. Great podcast Putin regime changed somewhat fund, reasonable inflation Steve Kotkin, I 'm very to! Think about all those Ukrainians who would continue to resist, Nuclear Weapons and American Renewal aggression &!, you need decent relations with the West on the history of Harvesters, Telepathy and the Future Five..., about the highlife about power best Political System very impressive but they 'll take a to. Repulsing their aggression in the West nature of the regime became More and More corrupt, less and sophisticated... Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution 1 community of podcast lovers and never a! Know understands this history More intimately than Stephen Kotkin is a Professor history.