it's a huge part of what we do and here is the most important thing and this is what stands out to me to this day more than anything else. we never, ever do audience research to determine what stories to cover ever. now, that especially in this day and age says a lot because we don't know what the viewer is going to want. the onus is on us to make the story so damn compelling that you just have to watch it.

for hitler 1921, 1929 through 1941 is part of the brie nard aaron swats the heart of our public programs an we always want to thank mr. schwartz for all his support which has enabled us to invite so many prominent. i would also like to recognize and thank new york historical trustee, chairman roger who is responsible for the 2011 renovation of new york historical society building as well as this magnificent robert h. smith auditorium during his tenure as chairman. let's give him a big hand. thank you. [applause]

i also want to recognize and thank trustees barry barnett and ira and wonderful chairman counsel members with us for their great work and support as well. thank you. [applause] so the program tonight will last an hour include an answer question and answer session and cards you should have received a card and pencil if you haven't our staff are circulating right now to hand more out and they'll be collected later on in the program. there will be a formal book signing in our ny history story on the 77th street side of our building. and copies of professor books will be available for sale. we are thrilled to welcome steven back to new york historical society. he's a professor holding joint appointments in the history department and the woodrow

wilson school at princeton university he's also a fellow at stanford, university hoover institution. the author of several critically acclaimed books is latest waiting for hitler 1929 to 1941 the second of three plan volume on the life and times of the soviet dictator before we begin i would like to ask, that you please turn off your cell phones electronic devices, and now please join me in welcoming steven. thank you. [applause] good evening everyone. there's a little madeleine albright school here for standing up to speak at the podium. [laughter] that's what they called it in the stadium the madeleine albright -- stool. but i'm not going to use the pod yum if that's okay.

i normally walk around the room. in fact, i walk all the way around so that i can check sales and j. crew as i'm speaking. yeah got to which can out how much those sweat pants cost during the lecture because, of course, university is only 65 thorks thousand a year an you can't check j. crew sales when it is but during. no one has their laptop open right now. so this seems to be a more engaged audience than i'm used to. [laughter] let's see how this is going to go. >> so there's this guy -- and he's on his death bed he's got maybe hours to live. if that -- an he's very agitated he has to get something off his chest and wife on his bedside in the

hospital. and he's trying -- trying finally he does it he says to her, i have to tell you something. i cheated on you. and the wife looks at him -- and she says, duh why do you think i poisoned you? [laughter] and her name is melania. do we have time for questions? [laughter] little did i know dale that a biography which i began many years ago was become a self-help book when it was published but here we are. so this is not the trump lecture

i also do a trump lecture. habe i'll be invited back for that maybe we'll see, i don't know. this is the stalin lecture. so stalin waiting for hitler opens in 1929 and the year before he has announced many a small group he's blurted out that he's going to collect agriculture by force. now there's something called the not in the entire but in the russian part for example not in ukraine or baltic and it redistricts land after a death in the family or a birth in the family or a calamity so that those who have less lacked and need more can can get a little bit more and those who are fine can give up a little bit of land but after the land is redistributed it is worked individual. individual household farms. so the commune is not collectively working the land. this is what collectivization of

agriculture entails and reason he's done it this, reason he's decided to do this, in 1928 now he's going to impose it in 1929 -- is because he's a communist. i know that sounds hard to believe. but the key secret of the communist party archives the ones that were classified hidden wongts talk about them or see them the key secret of archives is when you get to see commune fist behind closed doors, it turns out that they are communists instead of saying oh, you know, thawfl nonsense, the working class imperialism, we can relax now. nobody is watching. we can talk about what we really care about. insed, when they're behind closed doors, nobody is watching. they don't think anybody is going to find out. all they talk about working

class -- imperialism. and the argument was as follows he says while we have socialism in the cities state owned, state managed economy. so-called planned economy or five-year plan. right. but in the countryside the pose distants had their own revolution in 1917, 1918 they've evicted class from the land to say they got rid are of the landowners they themselves become de facto landowners 25 million homes through the 1920s and are hardworking they continue and get a fourth cows and may, in fact, hire other villagers to work for them because their farms are successful. well this is capitalism. this is hired labor otherwise

known as a wage slavery as marks called it. and he calls this in the jar began of the time cool farms. kulock means these people holding the otherses in their fists this is derogatory term. so they're dependent the ym is dependent on the size of the harvest they need more grain. but as the they are successful but they're better off armors so this is the paradox the regime has implanted itself in the cities and in the countryside there's de facto private ownership of the land. a market economy and some that are not doing well and, in fact, because they're doing well, the people in the cities are eating. but someone says we can't have two systems. social in the city --

and capitalism in the countryside. because marksist believes social basis of production determines the political system over the long haul. so capitalism in the countryside where the vast majority of people live about 120 million of the 140 or 150 million people capitalism means it is not viable it will be undone by this new rural that is forming. so stalin argues this and he says we're going to now and other people no friends they don't it like markets. they're not happy with capitalism in the countryside. they are committed to eradicating capitalism to get to socialism. and then eventually to get to communism right stages so

communist party has to create socialism and eventually communism. they say you know we don't like pose peasants but as of 1928 has been voluntarily collectivized 1%. so voluntary collectivization you wit a long time o see that happen over people who voluntarily collect are those who can't make it in private, in individual house farms. so -- the only way to do it is by force. massive application of force. cohearseive wholesale collective so this is what stalin will do now. the other members of the intercircle and wider part of the regime and third, they say this is crazy. you can't do this where do we get that force from and who will

actually do all of that and don't you think it would be catastrophic? we'll lose the harvest. we won't increase the harvest stalin says, well we need mechanismization right? yes. we need agronomy and fertilizer and consolidation of farms to get scale. just like happening many america i'll agree with this. well stalin says our tiny -- household farms are not going to get us that. we need to kind of consolidation big get to scale industrialized agriculture. kindkindkind of business and th- we can still do that with the model we have. please don't try to impose this thing by force. remember they're chiewnist too. but he says you don't have courage of your conviction either you believe in socialism and then communism or you "don't ask, don't tell" either we're going to eradicate or surrender

to these people. you might think why don't they allow successful peasants to build a larger scale agriculture through their hardwork? once again the answer is that's capitalism. can't have that. that's what they did in america. we're a socialism country run by a partial -- well, of course, stalin is tremendous will power maneuver ability shrewdness outmaneuvers them all and forces this mass whole sale cohearsive collectivization across asia affecting 120 million people. it's just breath taking that he's able to do this. what he does is he stirs up he

insights class warfare in the villages. he pits one group of peasants against other and imposes quota for number of rich who are shot on deported. so if this were a swirl is lag there are 400 people here. he would say -- 10% of you 40 of you are better off peasant and have to be deported to the ways of siberia and regs of you will join collective and a it turns out ten it of you are actually better off. that is to say you have three or four or five cows, and regs of you aren't as well off. but if you say it this is a crazy idea, that's it. you're now a better off peasant or if in ka hoots with the better off peasant is quota which have to be met peasants get together and protect

themselves by saying no it is not me. it's you. not you it is me. and point fingers at each other. this process, this starring of hatred and grievances -- frx they look at someone else's wife and that becomes now pointing out who is an enemy? who is a cool or octavely in ka hoots so stalin stirs up this process of hatred and jealousy and revenge and violence. it turns the critics are right who said it is dangerous if we do this. you're going destabilize the situation. the harvest is going to be worse not better. they actually prove to be correct. we're over there correct -- well beyond what they even

predicted. and -- as this -- process launched in 1929 there's a lucky harvest the first year in 1930 and then there's a drought followed by torrential rain in 1931. the dislocation, the peasant resistance deportation deporting the people who can work. all right they're getting rid of the better off peasant as well as others getting caught up in the process. as a catastrophic famine, 1931 to '33. about 5 to 7 million people starve to death. and 50 million to 70 million people starve but survive. famine is not about those perish but children malnourished and this is a legacy that last a really long time. so horrendous episode and the famine lasted persist 1932, 1933

there's even a bit of famine in 1934 in some places although by 1934 the harvest is better. the surviving peasant plant grain in collectives and harvest the grain and so they actually save stalin regime peasant enslaved forced into collective across asia so this episode why is it important? it is important because stalin doesn't flinch. he doesn't say oh, you know, you guys were right i did destabilize the situation. i shouldn't have done this. let's go become. let's retreat. he continues to press forward all the way through the famine using some of the famine and dislocation in order to finish the job of collectivization. and by 1934, he has eradicated capitalism in the countryside.

and now he's being celebrated even by his critics for having done what nobody thought could be done which was to impose collective farms across the one sixth of the earth. the social engineering. so this episode what happens sometimes with ideas right ideas can be noble or not noble method noble and implementing the idea -- what happens sometimes with ideas is -- ideas that are noble we get that. and we allow for that and we celebrate that. but when somebody is an idealist or has ideas and the ideas are monstrous, or o the implementation the meanings are monstrous we tend instead to talk about opportunism. lust for power, and also some other attributes which, of course, are presence but we tend

not to give as much a wait to the ideas when the ideas themselves are. but this episode and many other episodes in the book in my view indicate that there's an idealist here a communist idealist the communist true believer yes he's an opportunist. yes he's bending this e way and that way, and tactically flexible the way lennon taught him. yes he's trying to gain even more power although he's already got a dictatorship within the dictatorship but he's doing this because he believes this is necessary for the regime to survive for socialism to be built and for social justice to be achieved. the elimination of capitalism. he fondly believes this that documents are very, very numerous. about his beliefs or his discussions of his motivations during this and other processes.

so we need to take seriously sometimes even when the person is not to our liking, even when the ideas are not to our liking just as there's a lot of opportune wism noble ideas. there's, of course, idealism with a monstrous ideas as well. so this opens the book stalin presses this -- collectivization forward, they get nearly 100% collectivization, they the no, mad off kazakhstan off grazing land into collective farms which -- they end up losing most of their life stock and the famine in kazakhstan is by far the worst. the cost here are astronomical. but for stalin he's, an instrument of the movement of history and this is justified and necessary. but what happens is -- during the process he was being

criticized. first they doubted him when it started. and then when he -- destabilized everything, the famine broke out the disease accompanying famine it was horrible. officials began whispering behind his become and sometimes not behind his back. criticizing what he had done. well, this royaled him to no end. it made him so angry that he wases doing the hard thing that they said couldn't be done but needed to be e done o. they agreeed that capitalism need to be e lomented but too afraid to try or incapable of trying an he wasn't afraid he did it and they had the temerity, the goal to criticize him.

deeply it got you should his skin and we see this anger and resentment over o the criticism coming back again and again and again through further episodes in the regime including when he murders. large numbers of loyal elites which will happen in the period 1936 to '38 and is also covered in the book. so the argument of the book is it is not a personality that's formed in youth and then unleashed on world. it is the experience of acquiring power and exercising power life and death over hundreds of millions of people that experience is what forms the stalin whom we know. in other words, it's the rule it's the experience of rule. it's running building and running that dictatorship and --

and collect vising agriculture imposing that communist system on this vast population. this experience we all talk about how power you know absolute power corrupts absolutely. it's a famous saying, right? well -- power like that absolute power also shapes forms personalities. whatever was there whatever demonic internal royaling -- sentiments were there before, they were magnified deeply by this experience i could give many examples of this process at work. now, this is a long book i've been told. it's 900 pages of text my wife is kind enough to say that it reads like no more than 700 -- [laughter] she said this about volume one

also that pages just fly by. book that big it is very difficult to give a -- 30 or a 40-minute conversation of it. but i want to take another episode a second episode if that's okay. collectivization episode to aluminate things that yowlgd find in the book i think i'm actually okay with time for a change. yes okay so the second episode i would like to talk about is the infamous hitler stalin pack. the hitler stalin pack. this is a book that has culture -- domestic politic, foreign policy all in the same -- cover to cover between two covers. sometimes with stalin we get the culture in one book, the cultural specialsist will take that on. the trick with stalin is to put everything that he ran created,

experienced, destroyed right between the two covers to bring together what it was like to be solid not to separate to compartmentalize and other thing is geography. there are whole days of stalin's life that i know what he did from waking up until going to bed. and what passed his desk that day and what markings he put on the documents. he's a human being. for example he likes colored pencils he likes green, red, blue colored pencils so the documents in the archives are full of his scrib lings in these colored pencils produced by them factoring -- yes colored pencil he smokes pipe as you know, and he puts tobacco inside the pipe from cigarettes. this floor brand cigarette is his favorite.

he unrolls cigarette and dumps tobacco into the pipe two cigarettes worth if he spills any tobacco on the table or on the floor, he scoops it up. he's a little bit of a neat freak. you know about when you go to overpriced restaurant, and they have that qhiet piece of paper on the table on top of the table cloth, and then after you're done eating the bread they come with that letter opener type thing and they take the bread crumbs and they take them away. that's what he did with a tobacco. if there was a hallway and there was a runner a carpet down the hallway he walked on runner and if somebody else he saw was not on runner he would shut out hey get out the carpet. he played he bowled he loved a form of bowling. russian form of bowling -- lawn bowling. he loved the russian bathhouses. he loved to read.

he read books all a of the time hundreds of pages of book later on as he's murdering everybody, he begins to read about roman. he thinks there are lessons in there for him and roman story reading up about augustus various other figures. there's a person in there. and it's hard to get in that inside that person. hard to get in there. but evil is much more interesting when it is human. so here we have the hitler stalin unpack this infamous thing in august 1939. and one of the wise tales is just amazing number of false stories about stalin that are passed on from generation to generation. and then you go like to see the document bis and substantiated and often it's not. anyway, one of the wife tales is he had trust ared nobody. he was very suspicious person. but somehow he trusted hitler.

on surface it is absurd so working hypothesis let's assume he didn't trust hitler. potentially and let's see what comes out. so just before remember this meal pack in 1938 when a chamber lab and britain and france hand hitler a piece with no compensation, all right there are these episodes beef the hitler stalin pack but now we're in august 1939, with all during the hitler stalin pack negotiations, stalin is at war with japan. but that's east asian studies in different books from the stalin pack which is european studies. and once again compartmentalization power, anyway so he's at war. against the very substantial army, the japanese army. in the border land of

mongolia -- there's japanese have concurred, and created a puppet statement, and -- in the earlier part of the 30 so that's happening. and now -- he's negotiating with hitler so he's -- read ares up. they have a translation of them internally produced for the regime. stalin has an aid take care of us delivers the trancelation so he's got that, and he's underlining with those colored pencil he's underlining for example it say, once i mention subhumans, he underlines that. it says -- [inaudible conversations] right drive to the east. underlines that. so you start to get the impression that you know he got something out of that. and he kind of -- he gets the point. what that book is about -- and then you sew that he read other things a biography of hitler like conrad in russian translation main argument of which is hitler never keeps any

of his agreements. check mark hitler never keeps his agreement. so you begin to see that he wasn't that trusting. of hitler, in fact hitler understood he didn't trust as hitler told his own. so anyway, so invite hitler is one who needs to deal because he's decide to attack poland. and -- britain and france have vowed publicly to defend poland and so if the soviet union joins britain and france, yerm is potentially surrounded and has a two-front war to fight overt poland thing. so hitler's concerned to get his east flank stabilized with a nonaggression pack. so stalin has leverage in negotiation. so he hasn't told a lot of people that these negotiations

are going on because he's suspicious in conspirator. and at the night before he's supposed hitler's foreign minister on behalf 69 purer comeses to moscow to do the deal. the night before they're there -- and stalin says to this guy who is kind of a little protege at this point -- it and he says to him you know flying in tomorrow night. and stalin has this prefer sense of humor that everyone in the ym is familiar with. for example, stalin won't see somebody for a long time then he'll see them and he says what you haven't been arrested yet? right that's his sense of humor. [laughter] yeah how would you like to work many that regime in? anyway so first -- yuck, yuck, yuck flying to moscow right it is the that subsidy communist they hate each other nothing but pouring filth over each other in their propaganda. and doesn't know what to say so

he takes it as a joke yeah he's going to join the communist party right so -- no, no actually he's flying from moscow. told a night before this gatt ring at dinner supper really -- so he's flying on hitler's personal plane across from today cleaning, right into soviet territory and soviet border guards don't know it is unidentified plane a german plane they begin to shoo antiaircraft guns and they miss. can you imagine stalin telling hitler, had the antiaircraft not missed you know it was a

misunderstanding. we invited your foreign minister here to most u cow, and -- we forgot to tell border guards an they shot him down i'm so sorry. it won't happen again. you can imagine how history how they hit that plane and as they said lands safely, and he's received at the -- at the airport which stalin's personal armored pack and there's a picture of this in the bock just lightning there's a picture of hitler playing with him on it which comes from the personal photoalbum. there's a picture also traffic also in the book of armor with a nazi flag on it. sent to pick him up which is from private newsreel of the landing made for him personally it is a little snip it out of the newsroom. anyway, reverend goes to the kremlin they begin to negotiate and they cut the deal. the deal is about hitler most of

him and gets a piece of poland poland will disappear there's fears of influence beyond poland okay deal is done. the map is arranged they agree on where the line goes down in poland. he goes back to hitler. hitler is overjoyed. and -- a weak after he's been in moscow. supposed to invade from other side but he doesn't do thinking. he's just watching. poland as an army poland has an air force maybe they're going to bog the germans down. well it turns out that polls tight if heroically but don't fog german down and type operation is not called out yet slices through -- poland and low and behold already sepght 16, 17 18 --

the german forces are on stalin's side was line. of the line. so think about this. there's a map, they agree, and stalin has got what with hitler he's got this piece of paper. that ribbon has signed on behalf of hitt e her. and then the german army is moving eastward and stalin's direction. and now they're on the other side of the line that was agreed. so -- in berlin to meet with the head of german intelligence and what's going on here. the mignon get sent into the office with a giant map on the table and the map shows that german forces where they are with a little stick pen you know on the military map. and if map shows that they're on stalin side of the line.

this is reported that they're mapping you know in jer man headquarters. stalin crawls in german military stationed in moscow and he says to him you guys you're on my side of the line. and guy said well you know it is just a misunderstanding. we'll fix this. don't worry. he says well, you know, we're killing the polls. and the polls are running. they're running away and so in order to chase them and wipe them out we had to go further than we thought we were going to go. and it just so happens that the side of the line where the germans are that was supposed to be that's where oil fields are the oil fields -- arranged cities -- know that city? yeah. anyway, and so a coincidence on the side and oil fields are

there so stalin says to german military -- well if it is a mous understanding fine. but we're going to take that territory back. and red are army goes in. forcibly ceasing back oil field so septemberth, 20th red army and -- engage in squirmishes and casualties own both sides. so that's your hitler stalin pack stalin forcibly takes remember there are two on both sides this is real engagement he forcibly retakes oil fields that are on his sides of the map. during middle of all of this hitler himself is in poland. he's in which is a coastal resort near gadnz on baltic sea and he's portion germans backwards he gives a retreat say we shouldn't be there.

get out of there, and as germans are retreating they're very angry. they need that oil. they earned it. they took it and so they fire at the soviets as they're retreating germans do. stalin draws the conclusion that the german army wants war with the soviet union and hitler is the restraining force o. exactly the opposite of what the facts were. so this is a gigantically important episode now you're going say what happened to the oil? well, of course. stalin is selling there's a trade for democracy dimensions to the pack and stahl about is selling german army grain and oil. in exchange for german military and weapon industry -- so stalin is selling the germans

the oil that the germans have ceased themselves in exchange for state of the art german so you can only imagine how happy that makes the germans feel. right the oil that they took they're now paying for they have to give it back up and now paying for. there are quite a lot of episodes like this that you need to get a fresh look at and put yourself into stalin's mindset for understanding you know what the world looked like from his point of view. not because we have to value diet his point of view but these are practices i would say zero -- but in order to understand how this regime operate operated and what type of person he was rather than -- insert our assumptions or impose our assumptions on his way much thinking so you have the japanese army moving in his direction in the east.

and that line thattest that agreed all he has is a slip of paper writing check marks about hitler never keeps agreement right before they did the pact. so you have to say to yourself, it could be that didn't trust it. thank you for your attention maybe we'll take some questions now. okay. here we go. he's are your questions -- and as you can see i'm taking the top one. [laughter] you know how dealers are, right? and nothing up the sleeve -- no questions that i wrote myself. you want to sign a pact? all right. here we go.

during the famine and post famine did the worldwide financial depression affect russia. splent question. so one of the things about communism was that the timing was good. you see the capitalism is the reason you have socialism. capitalism is no good and socialism is going to be better. capitalism is in great depression it is mass unemployment with fascist militarism and colony all over world so in 1930s against that background social i feel has full employment. it's -- it is -- a stated peace policy rather than an aggression that's just aggression. it's got self-determination, so in the 1930s despite the

famine despite the 5 to 7 million deaths and the 50 million to 70 million or starve an survive dispite that many around the world and not just soviet union are looking at this saying this is better or thxd this could work what happens after world war ii is -- the soviet union again sthiewms capitalism will have another great depression. in fact, this is -- the basis the core of the granted grand strategy the great depression and a inherent in the capitalist system. the problem for stalin is that capitalism forgot to have another great depression after world war ii. instead it had a middle class economic bomb and my father who worked in a factory bought a house. in the post world war ii economic boom. japan -- rest germany, just a tremendous story.

and so against that background socialism doesn't look as good, and this is the problem for socialism. the problem for socialism is that it is only necessary if capitalism is not working socialism is going to be better. so if capitalism is working better and better there's no reason for socialism anymore so that's, that die signal sick reverse in the 1930s during the famine. and so many people unfortunately excuse the famine precisely because they see capitalism is horrific mass unemployment fascist aggression imperialism and socialist has to be better than that even if it has some growing pains. okay. do you see parallels between stallen and trump where stalin or steve bannon? [laughter] so we took until the second card -- [laughter] so let's give the audience credit.

and ask a legitimate question for the first question. and here we are now with stalin and trump. yeah. [laughter] so let's say a few things about stalin. 16 to 20 million people died as a result of stalin's policy. i don't know where you are with trump but i don't think we are there yet with that kind of stuff. right -- stalin was diligent he worked all day 16, 18-hour days -- showed up at the office all day. convened meetings with officials. there was an inner agency process and policy process yes stalin was also the guy we know. he was a sociopath. yes. but he built a military industrial superpower.

he presided over o all of that and had quite a lot to do with that and have you few people hitler maybe -- mou and who else? handle of mothers-in-lawsome that's really it. [laughter] i don't think trump is in that category for everything that we can say about trump. plus god willing in 2024 we'll be done with trump. [laughter] yeah, hello, new york. right? 1.what -- 7 million hillary clinton won new york by. including new york city 1.5 million votes. and she won california by 4.2 million. so in other words, trump won the united states of america by 3 million votes. excluding california and new york. that's something to remember also. and if we run up the score again

and democrat in next election wins new york not by one 1.7 but 3.7 million guess what same score. same score because it's not about new york and california. okay -- what do you consider the most common misa apprehension of the spanish civil war we have history buffs in the audience keeping me on my toes another very good question. the spanish civil war is as you know is this episode 36 to 1939 a spanish republican there's an a attempted push by generals one of whom is francisco this little pipsqueak. and is not the only one there's a guy general mola with franco a couple of others elderly general -- who is in exile in portugal goes back to spain with it.

but is such a did i so much luggage that his plane crashes. and you never make it to the push. anyway the reasons there's a push is because -- they don't like the republic they don't like democracy. they don't like the anticlericalism of the left. and they're afraid of leftism which they consider equivalent to the social movement. the push, however, is not supported by the entire country. there's resistance to the push as a result of which the spain descend to civil war. stalin intervenes in the civil war. on behalf of the republic the help it defend itself against franco and franco's health mates inside a outside spain like mussolini and this becomes -- a kind of big moral struggle between fascism and antifascism or between franco and his --

and the left. the left is -- made up of many, many different groups from anarchist to communist to splingter to democrat socialist and they're in what is called a popular front. a popular front on the left or no enemies to the left. so the made misapprehension of the spanish civil war by the way just a few years ago we finally got secret documents on the intervngs in the civil war. so we have a new story now that we didn't have before. which is detailed this one of the longer chapters in the book. but the main misapprehension is that the popular front in spain the left is coalition to oppose push in the civil war against franco -- but that left popular front failed because stalin was evil. and began to conduct purges arrest and asac nations on the left dividing left as a result

of which it was weakened stalin didn't want to left this resolution or he wanted only a communist version of it and it was weakened and therefore frankel won. this is a story that is -- heroically told in many great memoirs george orwell has a brilliant book which takes a version of this line and orr o well himself was a participant as you know and a was wounded in -- in the spanish civil war. hemingway fsz there and popular front on the left failed on its own materials. because the socialists and the communists in spain hated each other. there was such a gulf between the socialist and communist. the communists didn't want to cooperate with the socialists. because they didn't believe they

were for real but that they were for capitalism but they were going to keep markets in private property not go all the way. the way lennon stall and communists would go. suspected that communists were not truthful when they said nerp in coalition for the socialist parliamentary regime with private property that the communists were actually working behind scenes to undermine it. so the socialist disstress of the communist and communist stress of the socialist so you see this warfare on the left a civil or war inside the spanish civil war on the left. which cripples the left's ability to fight even before stalin is an added to the mix. and, in fact, it's stalin restraining communist to force them into this coalition popular front of the left and -- he's the one who is trying to make the popular front work even

as he's assassinating individuals. now, franco wins the war because -- there's a popular front on the right. which is successful. in other words, the right is a bunch of groups also desperate. monarchists all way to fascists -- traditionalist catholics, right -- big knicks on the right and franco was able to marginalize the spanish fashionists who were quite small in number and to build this popular front on the right domestically. and, in fact, that's one of the main reasons he wins the civil war. and so -- franco wins through political means he's politically -- and the left is condemned by its own civil war. inside itself between those who accept parliament private property an markets and want to kind of welfare state version of

socialism versus those who are more lennon version. i can give you many many more details but then again it is in the book. for those people who are thinking this the holidays are coming, and the spanish civil war is just the thing yowpght to give as a gift -- to dad or grandpa or your children ceased reading after they turned five and discovered your phone -- all right. [laughter] i got another one, this was inserted on to the top but not by me. so any son sheens is still mostly clear at this point what was son like in inner personal relationship with women? was he a harvey weinstein type or not? [laughter] i added that part what was he

like with the women that's here? the other part is -- ripped from the headlines. [laughter] you get punchy i don't know about you but i commute out of princeton on thing that we can still to this day calling a train. [laughter] but if you've ever been on it doesn't merit that name. it makes all local stops including those stops which aren't on a schedule. [laughter] and just sits there. it's called new jersey transit. right, has anybody ever been on that thing? it makes the lirr metro north look like the japanese bullet train.

i was on map at 6:38 penn station this morning to go out to check j. crew sales. [laughter] and here i am now i think it is nighttime in new york. all right let's do the women thing. so -- there's a lot of stuff in the book about the iner personal relations he didn't have a harem. most dictators have a harem. if you your mussolini you know there are mistress and then others besides the mistresses -- concubines whatever, and it's pretty typical that they do this sometimes it is extremely cohearsive barry for example had a harem and a lot of it was cohearsed women were pulled in off the street by some of various henchmen not sure because some of the documents have vanished so stalin has no

harem. doesn't have have many misstresses either and hard to identify mistresses that to say to substantiate there are some rumors, and there are some memoirs about how i was stalin's mistress. you know what that is good for. like those memoirs many years after he's dead -- val tee that worked where stalin live and people think that after stalin's wife committed suicide in november 1932 that stalin had a lifelong affair with her beginning not long after. so you get in you check the documentation if he began working in 1946. so telling you what that old wifes tale is worth so we have a wife who died young. first wife -- from disease in bacu and married

1907 died in 1908. he seems to have loved her. and he's a photograph in my first volume taken from the georgia i can archive of her funeral and he then remarried he was -- very much older than his second wife. nadia and she was a teenager when he married a second wife, and he loved her. st there's no question but he was not a good husband he neglected her the same way he did two children one child from his first wife of the first wife and then he had two children -- [inaudible conversations] from the second wife nadia as i said committed suicide in 1930. in his own way he loved her. he was very difficult i know this audience understands what

it has to be a difficult husband as joan rivers said how many husbands -- go down to the corner store for a quart of milk and never come back? not enough. [laughter] yeah he was that kind of husband. there weren't have women in the regime in -- positions of authority very few, in fact, that is larger culture of russia. and much more than his two boys, and doted on her for a while. but it was very difficult for the children after the mother died they were raised by the body guards of the cooks and the other staff personnel at the dacha where they life so anyway not everyone lair father not a

everyone lair husband. but minimal relations with women because he was a workaholic in the regime. and spent almost all of his time building this military and socialist this military industrial state. all right. shall we did a couple more? are we okay? i have more than one in front of me. and the charm -- that's for sure none of it. was there a realistic prospect versus u.s. aid poll in finland, yeah -- angela french expedition -- [laughter] this audience has a sense of humor. [laughter]

do we got here how did stalin react to anti-semitism primary documents offer insight into this? that's a good one. because he's accused of being anti- spes but he's got the normal of that time and that part of the world. let's get a good question to end on. o', my god -- okay let's put those aside. okay we're getting down to knity gritty here, with dale. here we go you mention in your book stalin was avid reader collectorrer of books who do you consider to be his stroppingest literary influence it is how did

these writers affect his policies with an e? it's with an a being there, i'm a college professor afterall. okay. so that's one with of the really important things about this guy. he's a striver self-betterment, he does really well in school as a youth. in fact he's top his class very successful. however he gives it up for the struggle for social justice because the ym is oppressive and he commits his whole life to social justice in fact he spends almost 20 years in the revolutionary underground before 1919 with no job, no money, exile, imprisonment, escape, police surveillance, back into

prison back into exile but he's dedicated to revolutionary cause part of the idealism story. and he's reading -- this whole time with a self-betterment ethic and he likes other people that are like this if you look at his library it was dispersed they only kept together the books 5h or so that has his mark technician in them. you know 20,000 or so books in his personal library. but if he didn't have markings in it they were dispersed after he died record collection dispersed after he died prnl photos were lost. we do have is mark and lennon he constantly read marks and lennon and put white strips of paper in the books to piepgd quote really handy.

if there was something lennon said about british he had a white mark to go to that quote but after a while he so knew, he knew lennon so closely that he could quote by heart. many of these passages -- he also read novels, in fact, he line edited novels. he would receive a novel or a play or poetry from writers and he would go through and make editorial changes the way for example, my editor did at penguin press and you log at edit iting and sometimes it was quite good sometimes it was political and sometimes it was literary and was an improvement. he screened films that he wanted to see. and made edit or suggestions for what needed to be done before they were released to the public.

he read as he said in the 1930s and began to have officials he read up on december and read russian history imperial russian history roman history and ancient persian history which shows his caucus influence and ancient medieval persian dynasty and he u knew quite a lot about them and spent a lot of time with them. he read class ukes the favorite a writer -- in terms of the old writer because it portrayed swirlenings as real people and he liked that not just the hero but also villains were believable. he read the -- literature in translation quite

a bit so we think he read about 200 pages a day most of that was military and intelligence a and civilian domestic intelligence file and there's a world view suspicious world view about enemies internal and external reflected in these files. and his -- instructions on his reactions to files made him more like what he was looking for and it became a kind of echo chamber in a way he spent a lot of time with interrogation protocols -- he read these to confess so this is a contradictory person very clever, but at the same time blinkered because he had -- [inaudible conversations] broad thinker about strategy in how the world works. and at the same time murdering people who are loyal to him and

not forgetting any slight right all of this is who stalin is and i hope i captured him in the book. thank you for your attention. [applause] sieve, thank you so much. this was a great talk. i hope you'll meet him in the -- in our ny history bookstore on the 77th street side of the building he's happy to sign his book and chat with you a little. right? right -- and we hope to see you back again. thank you. thank you all for coming. [applause]

booktv covered many books on russia and its relationship with the united states including those by gary. ben, masha and more visit booktv.org, and type russia book in the search bar. captured in the movie -- blind side? >> sandra bullock captures lianne so well that when shawn tiew by the husband saw the movie for the first time, he went -- awe -- two two of them i can't handle one. there's two of them, an it was -- it was shocking to me, and it was first time i ever seen one of my characters end up on screening so -- i was even more impressed than

maybe i even should have been. i subsequently saw that -- brad pitt captured billy been in all kind of interesting ways. christian bale captured michael in all kind of interesting way. steve carell captures steve ios man in all kind -- and acts of imitation their impressions they do, back up and say a movie business and hollywood and select but underneath that in los angeles there's a trade in a craftsman with unbelievable skill and talent and these actors directors and writers the good ones -- are, are are so talentedded that you can't believe it when you see. can i tell you one story this is -- i love sandra bullock just the best i think and did an unbelievable job but actor who scared me the most with his powers was christian bale. and --

he scared me because michaelbury who is -- who is no connection, much social to the outside world the first to really see what's beginning on in the morgan and only one who has a -- argument about when the market is going to turn and why. and very, it is based on having studied the loans that were made that shouldn't have been made. that i. so he's in person he's got a little quirky i mean not wildly quirky but quirky. and i had heard that christian bail had gone and spent one day with him. that was it. he called very politely can i spend the day and stay with with you came in the morning and watched him. caulk talked to him and natural conversations but michaelbury said was odd for me it was odd he said odd for me buzz concern

he didn't go to bathroom or eat and sat for 12 hours and i was exhausted at the end of it. christian bale on the screen -- become michaeland he's wearing the clothes what michael was wearing buzz he went into the clothes closet and took him i cornered him and say i spent a year you know studying this person. and i could not have done an impression. i mean, you're doing it all kiengtd of things i don't know what it is -- they get him across. so how did you do that? and he didn't want to talk about. you know it is like after magician don't want to tell their magic trick by bothered him so much. hibs okay here's what, this is the thing it was obvious right away. obvious he breathed funny i said what, he said -- when he talks had takes odd

breaths and from that mannerisms emerge so i saw that right away and a it was obvious i said to the director when i was playing let me get my breathing right if i get it right everything else with follow. you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.