Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

2024-12-04 · 86 min · episode 228 · 8 entities

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→ appeared on Conversations podcast

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Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography
→ discusses Society & Culture concept

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Feed category: Society & Culture
→ discusses Education concept

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Feed category: Education
→ hosted by Mercatus Center at George Mason University company

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mentioned Society & Culture concept

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Feed category: Society & Culture
mentioned Education concept

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Feed category: Education
discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Society & Culture
discusses Education concept

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Feed category: Education

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Feed author/publisher: Mercatus Center at George Mason University
hosted by Mercatus Center at George Mason University company

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Feed author/publisher: Mercatus Center at George Mason University

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Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

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appeared on Conversations podcast

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evidence rules-v4
Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

Episode description as stored

Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give In his landmark multi-volume biography of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin shows how totalitarian power worked not just through terror from above, but through millions of everyday decisions from below. Currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution after 33 years at Princeton, Kotkin brings both deep archival work and personal experience to his understanding of Soviet life, having lived in Magnitogorsk during the 1980s and seen firsthand how power operates in closed societies. Tyler sat down with Stephen to discuss the state of Russian Buddhism today, how shamanism persists in modern Siberia, whether Siberia might ever break away from Russia, what happened to the science city Akademgorodok, why Soviet obsession with cybernetics wasn't just a mistake, what life was really like in 1980s Magnitogorsk, how modernist urban planning failed there, why Prokofiev returned to the USSR in 1936, what Stalin actually understood about artistic genius, how Stalin's Georgian background influenced him (or not), what Michel Foucault taught him about power, why he risked his tenure case to study Japanese, how his wife's work as a curator opened his eyes to Korean folk art, how he's progressing on the next Stalin volume, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video . Recorded November 13th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here .