Talk:Stephen Kotkin

Notability
Is he really important enough to merit a page on Wikipedia? If every academic in the US had his own Web page, there'd be no room for anything else. Mole2 10:19, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I suppose he meets the criteria for academics established by Wikipedia. Objection withdrawn.--Mole2 (talk) 04:59, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Interview Addition
Hello, I am an intern for the New Books Network and I am currently working on a project where I link the author's interview from the New Books Network onto his/her Wiki page (if the author or their book has one).

Stephen Kotkin gave an interview on March 14, 2011 on "New Books in East European Studies" (cross-posted from "New Books in History"). If you would like to add the interview to his wiki, you can find the interview here.

Thanks, --Kristine Daggett 19:03, 23 October 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kristine-daggett (talk • contribs)

Second Stalin volume
Kotkin is currently writing the second and third volumes on Stalin: Waiting for Hitler (Releasing on November 7, 2017) and ....
 * "Waiting for Hitler" has been released; at least to libraries. I checked it out today.
 * This is another illustration of why encyclopedia articles should never use the word "currently" – unless said article is being updated daily and perpetually. Sca (talk) 22:30, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

To add to article
To add to this article (to make it properly encyclopedic): information about Kotkin's heritage (is he Polish American?), family/parents, and early life. Is he of Jewish heritage? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 22:22, 28 May 2022 (UTC)


 * His father's side of the family is from Vitebsk in Belarus; he refers to it at the end of this episode of the Ezra Klein show SignifyinTurtle (talk) 18:08, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * @Kaliforniyka provided a source claiming his father is Russian-Jewish, although @SignifyinTurtle also has a source where Kotkin himself admits to Belarusian heritage for his father. Triangulating both of these should mean his paternal family was from the Russian Empire (modern Vitebsk, Belarus) and moved over to the US before the Russian Revolution. AFAIK primary sources from Youtube videos are not good enough sources for this because of No original research and VIDEOLINK, but I can't find an acceptable source for this claim (nor can I read the paywalled source from @Kaliforniyka).
 * The Madness of Joanna (talk) 20:51, 26 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Since Belarus was part of the Russian Empire, people often referred to being from Russia though by today's maps we identify them as Belarusian. So I agree he should be identified as from Belarusian descent. —МандичкаYO 😜 02:48, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Childhood
For a famous historian and writer, the article has surprisingly little on the family background. In a lecture in 2017, available on Youtube, Kotkin mentions that his father worked in an embroidery factory and was able to buy a house because of post-war improvements of standard of living. This is not a source of verified information, but just shows what is not mentioned in the current article. -- LA2 (talk) 19:15, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Lenin's Testimony Claims
Using the Trotskyist 4th International as a source of evidence for there being an academic consensus against Kotkin's claims is an odd and likely biased choice. The article treats this issue like Kotkin is the only one who claims Lenin's Testimony was forged when Hiroaki Kuromiya did as well. Kantisbroke (talk) 19:43, 22 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The Pipes statements given here do not address the points Kotkin made. And it is also strange to present ancient opinions by Carr, etc. as evidence against him.--Ralfdetlef (talk) 17:11, 14 October 2023 (UTC)