The

The United States, Our listeners know that this is a presidential podcast, but we love all history and we want to explore non-presidential topics.

And one of the most consequential men we've encountered

in our episodes is Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator from the 1920s to 1953. We covered him in our

episodes on Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Joseph Stalin is one of the most powerful

and ruthless men who've ever lived. It's

impossible to study the 20th century without studying him. And we're pleased to have as our guest

today, Dr. Ronald Griger Sunni, director of the Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies,

professor of social and political history at the University of Michigan, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. He just wrote a book titled Stalin, Passage to Revolution, and it covers Stalin's life from his birth to the 1917 Revolution. So, Professor, thank you for being on our show.

I'm happy to be here.

Yes, and I read through it.

It's an absolutely fascinating read.

It's also very in-depth on his life.

What got you interested in Joseph Stalin and in writing this book?

So many years ago, I was a graduate student and looking for a dissertation topic, and I studied

the revolution in the city of Baku. Baku is now the capital of Azerbaijan, by the way, in the news, because it's

launched a war against neighboring Armenia. How topical these things suddenly become, right?

Anyway, I was interested in Baku in 1917, 1918. And one thing led to another, after that

book, I got interested in Georgia. So I wrote a book

called The Making of the Georgian Nation. And inevitably, if you study the Baku commune, which Stalin

was involved in, from Moscow, and you study Georgia, the country in which Stalin was born,

one thing led to another. And I thought,

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