Russ Stalin: The Gold Standard of Distortion

Stalin is really the gold standard of dictatorship. No dictator has amassed more power than Stalin, exercised it with greater consequence. It hurts to understand that he didn't have to make those decisions. He could have been more magnanimous. His regime would have survived. And so my job in a way is to convey from the inside, from the original documents, from a sense of deep empathy or understanding as we historians call it, empathy.