Stephen Kotkin

So the amount of repression is an important question.

We would call this a vegetarian regime compared to the carnivores like Stalin's regime or Hitler's regime in terms of the degree of repression.

But the dynamic of being compelled to exercise repression against the very people you need like oxygen, that's the dynamic that we see in Tsarist Russia and that we still see today in a certain form.

So the Tsarist regime is undertaking this repression of people who have legitimate claims.

And that repression is quite severe by the standards of the day.

Okay, it's not going to be everybody murdered or everybody deported to the wastes of Siberia, which we're going to see in the 20th century, when we have a different level of communications and transport, different technology, when we have a different level of ideological commitment.

But still, it's highly repressive.

It's totally unjust.

And the claims of the people protesting are legitimate.

And so Stalin goes into the underground.

Not because he's looking for power.

It's because he's dedicated to fighting the injustices of the czarist regime.

And a lot of young people like him do the same.

And so he's in the seminary.

He's highly successful, unbelievably successful.

He's great at school.

That's been true for many years now, since he was in elementary school.

sang in the choir, good grades, did his homework.

So he's on track to be successful in society.

He gives it all up.