I’m a huge Kotkin fan. I own all his books and have seen all his videos. I am new to this channel. I consider this interview to be one of Kotkin’s most enlightening and I attribute that to the OUTSTANDING questions put to him by this interviewer.  Very well done. So often interviewers come with generic questions and let the interview flow where it will. But the preparation demonstrated by your questions distinguished this interview from the rest.<br><br>I particularly liked your big picture questions such as, “What would you ask these world leaders?”, and the questions that gave rise to Kotkin’s observation that the contradictions in practice of Leninism are inherent in Marxism itself even if Marx’s ideology calls for all the benefits of eliminating Capitalism and none of the drawbacks.  This is the “nuclear bomb without civilian casualties” analogy.<br><br>Outstanding interview...I’m a subscriber starting today.<br><br>For those looking to read more about Stalin or Communism in Russia/Soviet Union, you cannot so much better than Kotkin’s two published biographies of Stalin.  For your own sake, steer clear of less rigorous biographers like Sebag Montefiore.  Kotkin limits his sources only to contemporaneous written texts so it is based on history as it unfolds rather than people’s biased recollections years later which are inevitably colored by subsequent events.