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A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

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Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#21

Post by er4hn »

zabzonk wrote: post #17

IMHO the best view of Stalin and Stalinism, and certainly the funniest if your taste is for black humor is the film "The Death Of Stalin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin often available on streaming services. A new version with s/Stalin/Putin/ would be good, and perhaps given oligarchs etc. even funnier.

Yes! The Death of Stalin is a wonderful movie.

I'm eagerly awaiting the take on this for the Trump years. Can you imagine having actor comedians play Spicer, Scaramucci, a constantly exasperated Gen. Mattis, etc, etc?

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#22

Post by sydthrowaway »

ortusdux wrote: post #6

You can download 121 episodes of Tom and Jerry from the CIA's public release of Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound computer files. As far as I can tell, it is the most complete collection available online for free or though paid services. The runner up is HBO max with a paltry 77 episodes. https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/index_video.... https://medium.com/fan-fare/hbo-max-is-failing-the-classic-t..…

The US Government should be sued for copyright infringement

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#23

Post by bnralt »

VictorPath wrote: post #10
panick21_ wrote: post #2

A lot of that rings pretty true. Stephen Kotkin's own biography that I have been reading his some of the same points. Because of the new archives you can really get an insight into the day to day operation of an empire that combined the power and function of New York, Washington, LA, Detroit and SF into one centrally run from an office. Its a a baffling process where Stalin moves between editing movies, deciding how…

> Stalin foreign policy (not unlike Chamberlains) was to pull Germany to his side Sort of. Prior to 1933 was the Third Period where the Comintern was antagonistic in Germany even to socialists ("social fascists"). From 1934 to the end of 1938 the USSR was looking for a self-defense pact with France, or the UK, neither country of which was interested (Blum in France was not for complex reasons). In 1939 the USSR and G…

Indeed, it's worth pointing out that the Soviet Union offered to defend Czechoslovakia from Germany in 1938, but other countries opposed this. In general, I get the impression that European powers in the 1930's couldn't make up their mind between countering Germany or countering the Soviet Union.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#24

Post by recuter »

hutzlibu wrote: post #20
recuter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if you ask a Russian, they'd say replacing Germany with the Ukraine and Russia with the USA in your analogy. I don't think you are squinting too hard, there is a common view in geopolitics as Russia being a peer (super)power and future tie breaker between the US and China. Or at least there was until two weeks ago. One explanation for recent events is China letting Putin stick his head out and by literally sitting…

"by literally sitting back and doing nothing they'll essentially get to own Russia now." That would be Taoism, but overall, I do not see modern china as a non interfering power. Also, it is not settled yet, how all of this will play out.

Sure it is.

He can't climb down from the military debacle without getting overthrown. Similarly, the politicians in countries that so publicly imposed sanctions on him won't be able to backpedal either.

Short of a coup d'etat, a new iron curtain, a fire sale on Russian raw materials and companies. Ultimately, economic subjection to China and atrocities in Ukraine.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#25

Post by hutzlibu »

recuter wrote: post #24
hutzlibu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"by literally sitting back and doing nothing they'll essentially get to own Russia now." That would be Taoism, but overall, I do not see modern china as a non interfering power. Also, it is not settled yet, how all of this will play out.

Sure it is. He can't climb down from the military debacle without getting overthrown. Similarly, the politicians in countries that so publicly imposed sanctions on him won't be able to backpedal either. Short of a coup d'etat, a new iron curtain, a fire sale on Russian raw materials and companies. Ultimately, economic subjection to China and atrocities in Ukraine.

"He can't climb down from the military debacle without getting overthrown"

You name it: this is a very possible outcome. Putin is only the tsar, as long he is succesful. The russian oligarchy is likely not happy about the state of things.

And it would be hard to unwind things, but without Putin new diplomatic solutions might be possible.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#26

Post by jackallis »

everbody seem to fascinated by Stalin, but only mention Trotsky in passing. It should have been Trotsky at the center stage as secretrait, even Lenin wanted him but alas the man died. I dont think there would have been Stalin if it was not for Lenin and Trotsky. Zinoview and Kaminev were .......

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#27

Post by george0812 »

Stephen Kotkin (briefly referenced in the article) is a history professor at Princeton University and known as the leading Stalin scholar. He's written amazing books and has long interviews on the subject on youtube. One thing that stood out from his talks/books is that he proposes that Stalin was no a psychopathic killer (unlike many other biographers/scholars) but a person who genuinely and deeply believed in communism and was willing to sacrifice anything and everything for it. He also describes Stalin as a super hard-working and pretty smart person.

Disclaimer: Kotkin is absolutely NOT a fan of Stalin, just trying to be thorough and impartial.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#28

Post by panick21_ »

narrator wrote: post #5
panick21_ wrote: post #2

A lot of that rings pretty true. Stephen Kotkin's own biography that I have been reading his some of the same points. Because of the new archives you can really get an insight into the day to day operation of an empire that combined the power and function of New York, Washington, LA, Detroit and SF into one centrally run from an office. Its a a baffling process where Stalin moves between editing movies, deciding how…

Often times there's a lot of controversy about if a leader is really in charge, or if they are merely a figurehead for some group of masterminds behind the scenes. The thing I like about studying Russia under Stalin is that Stalin was the one actually in charge. More than any other leader of the 19th or 20th century, he held the whole thing together almost singlehandedly. He had to because he got rid of people so reg…

The degree to witch the Personality of the Leader is reflect in the country can be quite absurd.

In any Gulag you would find amazing musicians, dancers and so on. But not singer, Stalin liked them to much. The cultural landscape of a country altered by the simple preference of one men.

We don't have everything, people like Ygoda seem to have gone threw the document and removed things that would negatively reflect on him.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#29

Post by silveira »

zabzonk wrote: post #17

IMHO the best view of Stalin and Stalinism, and certainly the funniest if your taste is for black humor is the film "The Death Of Stalin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin often available on streaming services. A new version with s/Stalin/Putin/ would be good, and perhaps given oligarchs etc. even funnier.

Not sure about how much historically accurate the movie is (my guess is not very much) but is one of the best comedies out there, specially if you like history. I also read the original comic book source material.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#30

Post by selimthegrim »

yyyk wrote: post #19
pasabagi wrote: post #3

I'm reminded a bit of Marx's Eighteenth Bruminaire of Louis Bonaparte, where the line 'once as grand tragedy, and the second time as rotten farce' was coined, because just like Napoleon III to Napoleon I, compared to Stalin, Putin is a dwarf. Sadly, I don't find the comparison particularly reassuring. Hilter, another 'moon-calf', with his 'first available dozen debt-encumbered lieutenants', did far more damage than S…

>a fairly sane if shaky revolutionary party Lenin started the Checka. Trotsky's complaint was that Collectivization didn't go far enough. We can go on and on. This party was rotten from the beginning.

"Stalin was but a lamb compared to Lenin"
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