Uncommon Knowledge: Part 2: Stephen Kotkin discusses Stalin’s consolidation of power

Recorded on July 29, 2015 As part 2 begins Lenin is dead and Stalin is trying to consolidate power. Although various people were vying for the position, Stalin had already effectively taken over Lenin’s job. Lenin’s last will and testament says bad things about all his successors, with Trotsky coming out the best, yet does nothing to dislodge Stalin from power. Stalin continues, through hard work and cunning, to gather power but also because people believed that he stood for the principles of the revolution.