Stephen Kotkin: Stalin, Putin, and the Nature of Power

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. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. 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. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon. This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”.  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?