Paul Gregory on Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin's Kremlin

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🗓️ 12 July 2010

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

Paul Gregory of the University of Houston and a Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Nikolai Bukharin's power struggle with Stalin and Bukharin's romance with Anna Larina, who was 26 years younger than Bukharin. Based on Gregory's book, Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin's Kremlin, the conversation explores the career and personal life of Bukharin and how his career and personal life intersected. Bukharin was one of the key founders of the Bolshevik Revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the late 1920s, he disagreed with Stalin's policy of collectivization. Stalin ruthlessly pursued him, eventually had him arrested, tried and convicted in the one of the infamous Show Trials, and executed. Anna, his wife, is then sentenced to the Gulag and later exiled. The power and poignancy of the story lies in Bukharin's refusal to believe that his old friend Stalin is out to kill him. Gregory also discusses Bukharin's economic policies and whether Stalin or someone like him was inevitable.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.5	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.8	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mailadicontalk.org, we'd love to hear from you.
0:38.6	Today is July 6, 2010, and my guest is Paul Gregory of the University of Houston, and a
0:44.2	research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:47.4	He is the author of Politics, Murder and Love in Stalin's Cremlin.
0:52.6	Paul, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:54.4	Thank you, Russ.
0:56.0	Your book is the story of somewhat obscure figure of history, but turns out to be a rather
1:01.2	fascinating person who had a rather fascinating life.
1:04.4	Nikolai Bukarin, the book is about his relationship with Stalin and his wife, Bukarin's wife,
1:11.8	Anna Lorena.
1:12.8	Let's start by talking about who was Nikolai Bukarin, who has fairly forgotten in today's
1:18.6	world, but during his lifetime it was a very prominent man.
1:23.6	Nikolai Bukarin was the youngest of the Bolshevik founders.
1:31.6	In my view, he was not an obscure figure because I've been acquainted with his work for
1:39.0	over 45 years.
1:41.0	He was perhaps the only trained economist among the Bolshevik founders.
1:48.2	He studied economics during his exile in Germany and attended lectures of the Great
	...

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