Episode
Stephen Kotkin — How Stalin became the most powerful dictator in history
Dwarkesh Podcast · Jul 10, 2025 · 2 h 13 min
The Stephen Kotkin episode. Kotkin is arguably the world’s foremost expert on Joseph Stalin and has written a massive 2-volume biography on him (with a 3rd volume in the works). No other individual had more of a profound impact on the 20th century than Stalin. He held the power of life and death over every single person across 11 time zones, and he killed tens of millions of people, utterly…