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Unwrapping the Enigma, Mystery and Riddle: Stephen Kotkin Explains Russia to Andrew Roberts | Hoover Institution

The Secrets of Statecraft

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The Rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union

In 1995 you wrote Magnetic Mountains, Stalinism as a civilization which exposed the realities of everyday life in the Soviet city of Magnetogorsk. It was but they didn't all think that. Paradox of the 1930s or the rise of the Stalinist system was that the deprivation was very severe and repression was extreme. Yet people not all but many in fact probably a majority felt that they were building a new world. They were willing to suspend as it were the disbelief in the reality that they were seen in order to believe in or hope for this radiant future. Lev Koppelev is the best example. Your listeners would enjoy his education of a true believer.

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