Um, good morning. So, today we do Joseph Stalin and I want to make you the argument that Joseph Stalin is probably the greatest man who ever lived. Okay, for three reasons. Uh, the first reason is that uh Joseph Stalin, he is a uh poor high school dropout from Georgia, which is on the fringes of the Russian Empire. and he leads an extreme fringe and despised political party called the Bolsheviks into absolute power in Russia.
Okay, that's the first reason. Second reason is that um among the Bolsheviks, Stalin is the least impressive. Everyone else is um intellectual with um many books, many speeches, many achievements uh to his resume. But Stalin defeats them all and becomes uh the ultimate ruler of Soviet uh Russia. The sec second reason.
And the third reason is during World War II uh Soviet Union was up against Germany. Um so Stalin took a poor divided isolated nation and defeated Germany and turn it into a global hedgeimon. All right. So these are the three main reasons why I consider Stalin to be uh the certainly the greatest man of the 20th century and quite possibly you can make the argument that he was the greatest man who ever lived. Okay.
So let me reframe what I just said in a different way so it's clearer to you. The Bolshvix should not have triumphed. Okay. If you just looked at um what's going on in the um early 20th century in Russia, you would not have predicted that the Soviets would have won. Stalin should not become Soviet leader and the Soviets should not have won World War II.
All right. All these three things happen because Stalin willed this reality into being. He is what Frederick Nichi would call the urbuts. The urbance is someone who steps out of outside of history and warps it to his will. Okay, that is Joseph Stalin.
That is the argument I will make to you uh today. All right. So, some basic history about Russia. Um as we discussed previously about Russia, Russia um is very much a nation with a split personality. It is both Asian as well as European, both Christian and pagan, both enlightened as well as reactionary.
And because of these contradictions, it leads to many rebellions and revolutions throughout Russian history. One of the most famous being 1825, a group of military officers called the December tried to overthrow the SAR uh and install a military dictatorship. Um, ever since this event, uh, revolutionary the revolutionary uh, um, discussion becomes sort of like a national pastime in Russia. uh Dossi um both DossiKi and Toy Stoy were sympathetic to uh revolutions. um 1853 to 1856 is a pivotal moment in Europe in Russian history because that's when Russia loses the Crimean War to the Ottoman Empire backed by the French and the British and this marks um a limit to the expansion of Russia.
So one way that Russia resolves its internal contradictions in its internal conflicts is by expanding eastwards and allowing the nobles to accumulate more land, more slaves and that um um mllifies a lot of these nobles. But in 1853 and 18 to 1856 after Russia loses the Korean war, Russia understands that um it is backward and agricultural compared with uh Europe. So Alexander II who is Sar of Russia at this time he embarks on a series of radical liberal reforms. The most major being in 1861 he he emancipates he emancipates the surfs. The surfs are slaves who are tied down to the land.
Um, and by liberating them, he hopes to further industrialize Russia as well as create a more vibrant market economy, which is what you need to be a modern uh, nation state. But as you can imagine, this creates a lot of uh, push back from the nobles who lose a lot of wealth and property because of these reforms. A fun fact about a second was he was very good friends with Abraham Lincoln. In fact, uh, Axon II was a huge admirer of the American Republic. So much so that when in 1861 the American Civil War started, um, Sar Alexander the second was worried that the French and the British would intervene on behalf of the Confederacy.
The reason why is that first of all, the uh, American Confederacy provides a lot of cotton to the British and the French for their textile industry as well. um as well the French and the British see America as a growing threat. So by supporting the Confederacy they believe that they can um divide and weaken America. So in response as I publicly stated that if the French and the British ever declare um an alliance with the Confederacy, then Russia would intervene on behalf of the Union. And to show that he was serious, he sent warships to New York and San Francisco to show that that Russia would defend America.
Uh so this is forgotten, but this is a really fun fact about um uh Russian history that Axi was a huge admirer of Abraham Lincoln. They wrote letters to each other and he did much to uh save the American Union in a in a time of its in time of crisis. Um now in 1881 his liberal reform stopped when he was assassinated. This was a day he was assassined on the day that he returned um u from a meeting where where he basically he was going to promote constitutional monarchy in Russia and then he was assassinated by a terrorist group called the people's will. Now there's a very good reason why the people's will um assassinate um Alexander the II.
At this time in Russian history there were a lot of revolutionaries who believed that to liberate Russia you need to liberate the mindset of the peasants. The problem is the mindset love the SAR and they and so the in intellectuals felt that this the idea of the SAR enslaved the peasants from seeking enlightenment and freedom and therefore to send a signal to liberate the peasantry you needed to kill the SAR in an act of violence and that's what happened in um 1881. Um, so this is the people's will and what you will see is that they're a very small group of people. There there was at most 2,000 and they they were founded right before they assassinated as the second 1879 and after assassination they were all the major members were quickly arrested by the secret police and executed and they confessed to their crimes. That's why we know so much about them.
But this creates a problem. The problem is this. If the secret police were so effective in capturing all the assassins right after the assassination, why weren't they effective in stopping the assassination? That's a curious question. In fact, if you think about some more, you have some other problems.
For example, the people's will, it is a terrorist organization, but where do they get the funding? All right, this is always a problem when you are an under underground organization. Where do you get your financing from? Another problem is um if these are religious fanatics, they really believe that their mission is to liberate the peasantry. They're probably very opinionated and it's probably very hard to organize them into a hierarchy.
All right, so these are two major problems that the people's will and other terrorist organizations throughout Russian history will face including the bullshiks. Now to answer both questions, let's do a thought experiment. Let's just say you're secret police, okay? and you're tasked with uh monitoring and capturing these terrorists. Now, is it to your benefit to capture them or is it to your benefit to assist them?
All right. Now, this sounds like a silly question, but let's think about some let's think about deeply. All right. So, why don't you want to support political extremists? Well, there's some very good reasons.
It's risky. It's violent. It's unethical. It doesn't really help anyone. Okay?
So, we should not help political extremists. But if you're secret police and you ask yourself what are the benefits of helping them, it turns out there's quite a lot. All right, let's go over them. Number one, by helping extremists, you defame the entire political opposition, right? You make all the people who oppose the SAR look bad because look, these are fanatical.
They're violent. Okay, that's one really good reason why you want to support extremists. Second is you want to forment internal disscent among political opponents. Okay, so the classic example is um the Marxist group at this time in history are the Mansion and they are intellectuals and they believe heavily in Marx. The Bullshiks are led by Lenin and they are an extreme group.
The main conflict is the manik believe that for the revolution to happen you have to follow Marxist prescription which is you go from an autocracy to a borchery uh democracy because that is what's going to help Russia industrialize. Once industrialization happens, capitaliz capitalism will in will automatically make the proletariat class conscious and when they're class conscious, they will unite and overthrow the borch democracy to to create the dictation of the politarian. Okay, that is a classical Marx uh theory of evolution towards a communist society. Lenin believe no we don't need this. Okay, because the mechic worldview is we have to be patient.
We have to wait for u Russia to industrialize. Right now um the industrial workers in Russia is about 3% of the population. Okay, the peasantry is 80%. And Lenon's argument is we'd have to wait for the politic become 80% of the population. What we can do is create a vanguard party and lead the peasants into communist paradise.
Okay. And the mesh say when you do that all you're doing is creating a um peasant revolution which will lead to a dictatorship of the peasantry. Okay. You'll be no different from the zar. All right.
So um eventually Lenin and the bleviks will split apart from the manviks. Okay. And it would be to the benefit of secret police to support the bolshviks. Right. and and and and of and we we'll see evidence for this later on.
Um the by supporting political extremism, you also induce political violence to justify more state control, right? Um you collect intelligence by implanting spies within these extremist groups. Uh you can also arrest extremists to score political points within the bureaucracy, right? Because the secret police is is getting paid a lot of money. How how do they justify their salaries?
Well, they arrest extremists that they support. Okay. Um also you can use these extremists to to assassinate political enemies. All right. So you make the argument that within the within the secret police there's a faction of nobles who were outraged at the reforms of Alexander the second especially the thought of creating a constitutional monarchy which would limit the powers of the of the aristocracy and therefore they had the people's will kill um Alexander the second.
You also have false flag operations where you have extremists um on behalf of your enemy create terrorist events within the country which will justify a war against an enemy. Okay. And also like the best reason of course is because it's fun and exciting. All right. The people in the secret police they're all psychopaths and they enjoy this process.
Okay. In fact, you can make the argument that one of the main functions of the secret police is to create problems for society so that they can justify their power. All right? So again, this sounds pretty extreme to you, but look at let's look at some evidence that this is that this was a case in Russia in the late 19th century. All right, so this is Vladimir Lennon and he was a revolutionary who had to escape to Europe in order to uh not be captured by the secret police.
Okay. And again, he was a fanatic. So, let's read from Wikipedia about his time in London. Lennon's factionalism began to alienate increasing numbers of bullshiks, including his former close supporters. Okay?
So, this guy was an [ __ ] He was a fanatic. He was extreme. He was violent. No one liked this guy. And normally what would happen is he becomes ostracized.
He becomes alienated. He is thrown aside. And he is left to write his own books. Okay? which would happen in a normal course of events.
But at this time in history, the secret police intervene. The Okina, which is the Russian imperial secret police, exploit his factional attitude by sending a spy, Roman Milanskovski, to act as a vocal lenorter within the party. Various Bix expressed their suspicions about Malansky to Lenin. Although it's unclear if the latter was aware of the spies duplicity, it's possible that he used Malansky to feed false information to the Ocrana. Okay, do you understand?
The secret police was a active supporter of Vladimir Lenin. Now the Wikipedia tells us that okay well um a sent a spy to support Lenin, but we can also guess that the secret police were also sending money to Lenin, which is very important, right? because Lenin can support his faction within the larger socialist movement. In fact, they probably have more money than the other groups. Okay, so the secret police is incubating the Blevix.
All right, let's use an example. Have you ever asked yourself where Islamic extremist comes from? So when we did the Islamic Golden Age, what I what I said and I still believe today is Islamist the Islamic Golden Age was a period of openness and tolerance. So So what changed? Well, after World War II, the Americans and the British start to sponsor Islamic extremism.
Okay, this is pretty well known historically. Why? There are three three main reasons why. The first reason is at this time in history, the Soviet Union and America was fighting a cold war. There were no Islamic minorities within America.
But guess what? There are lots and lots of Islamic minorities within the Soviet Union. Okay? In fact, it was maybe like a third of the population. That's a lot.
And they hated the communist because the communists were atheists and they want to celebrate their religion. Okay? So by uh sponsoring Islamic Islamic extremism, you are destabilizing Soviet Union. Okay? That's the first really good reason.
Second reason is um at this time the Middle East is growing in importance because of its um oil resource right well at this time in history the 50s 60s7s nationalism terrorism and socialism are the major ideologies of these nations at this time and these are all threats to American British commercial interests within the Middle East right because all these idealistics are saying like we shouldn't give our oil for free to American and Britain, we should protect our resource. So by supporting Islamic extremism, you're undermining these ideologies, which is exactly what happened in Iran, right? And the last reason is um the Americans and the British heavily support the Saudi regime, which is extremely unpopular. So a long time ago, the Saudis made a pack with Wahhabism, which is a um fanatical ideology within Islam. And so by supporting Islamic extremism, you support Wahhabism which supports the Saudi regime.
Okay? So I want you guys to remember this. The secret police throughout history, they've been supporting local extremists in order to achieve short-term um political objectives. Okay. All right.
Let's continue. Um so after the death of Axon the second, his son Axon the third comes into power and he is a reactionary. Um but he dies fairly young which leaves his son uh Nicholas II to take the throne. And Nicholas II he's very young and he's very inexperienced. He's a nice guy.
He loves his family but he's not really equipped to lead Russia in a time of tremendous political and social tomalt. Um 1904 the Russians lose a war against the Japanese. And at this time, not only do they lose the war, but there's famine going on throughout Russia. So, this is a time of tremendous discontent and revolution in Russia, which leads to something called the bloody Sunday in 1905 where worker protesters were killed by uh soldiers. All right.
Um also at this time what's happening is that the royal family um they start to ally themselves with a priest named Gregory Rasputin. All right. If he looks scary it's because this is a very scary man. Um he styles himself as a mystic and the royal family they have exactly one hair to the throne and his name is Alexi the young son. The problem with Alexi is he has something called hemophilia which means that if he bleeds he could die and Rasputin was very good at calming down Alexi.
So Rasputin became a member of the royal family essentially but people the Russian people hated Rasputin because there were there's rumors that he was like a sex maniac and he was he was organizing all these satanic rituals. Also there was a very popular rumor that the Rasputin was sleeping with Alexandra. Okay, the uh Zar Zorina. And eventually the nobles will organize and assassinate Rasputin but not before this entire fear does tremendous damage to the reputation and prestige of the royal family. um world war I breaks out and even though Rasputin pleaded with the SAR not to intervene, the SAR did did um declare war against Germany and now Russia is up against Germany, the Austrian Hungary Empire as well as the Ottoman Empire.
And this war is devastating for Russia. And in 1917, there's a huge uh spontaneous protest against the SAR. And at this point, his generals tell him he should abdicate, which is what he does. And so now the parliament called the Duma becomes the provisional government and they clear a republic. All right?
But they're still at war with Germany. So what Germany does is it organizes Lenin to be snowmobile back into Russia so that he can ferment uh discontent and rebellion and revolution. Okay. So Stalin sorry so Lenin was not just a useful idiot to the Russian secret police but he was also a useful idiot to the Germans who wanted to knock Russia out of the war. When Lenin returned to Russia, he um tried to organize a rebellion against a provisional government because provisional government still wanted to stay within the stay in the war and Lenon wanted to take Russia out of the war.
Lenon called for three things, okay? Land, peace and bread. And this was very popular among the people. Eventually, a pro provisional government tried to arrest Lenin. he escaped.
Uh but then what happened was uh the military tried to overthrow the government and now the provincial government under Kinsky now re now requires Lenin to help out and defend uh the republic against the military and Lenin is not in any way um a politician. He's a theoretician. Okay. And he's fanatical. So let's read a passage from his book state of revolution which he wrote at the summer 1917 to understand his thinking.
He says the petty bi democrats he's talking about uh the provincial government those shem socialists the the menics who replace the class struggle by dreams of class harmony even picture the socialist transformation in a dreamy fashion not as the overflow of the rule of the exploiting class but as the peaceful submission of the minority to the the majority which has become aware of its aims. Okay. So Lenin has absolutely contempt for all all of his enemies a violent vitual contempt. All right. So in 1917 October Lenin uh orders a coup d'eta against provincial government and this uh will eventually lead to something called the Russian civil war.
And at this time in history, the Bolsheviks are controlling only some small cities, primarily Petrograd. But their enemies called the whites. Okay, the whites are uh former remnants of the Russian Empire, uh the aristocrats, the military, they control most of Russia and it seems like they're making a huge advance against the Bolsheviks. Okay. But there are three things that will conspire to ensure the Bosiks win.
The first thing is the whites don't actually have a policy for reform. They don't have they want things to say they are the way they are and peasants are hungry. They're landless. They want peace. Okay.
So they lose the support of the peasants. That's the first problem. Second thing is the um the Bvigs will enact a reign of terror. Okay, they have the secret police called the Czecha which goes around and kills all enemies of the revolution. Right?
So so they are fanatically installing fear and terror among the Russian people. The last reason most important reason is Leon Trosky. Leon Trosky organizes the Red Army and Leon Trosky is an incredible orator as well as organizer. He is absolutely ruthless. He organizes uh something called um blocking division.
So the idea is when you go into battle um you're supposed to run ahead. If you if you change your mind, you run back, someone back a blocker will shoot you to death. Okay? So it is brutal and but it works very effectively. Also, um, Leon Trosky reorganizes the Red Army into a meritocracy.
So, he doesn't care about your political affiliation. He doesn't care whether or not you supposed to support the bullshiks. You're capable. You'll be promoted within the Red Army. Okay?
So, he turns the Red Army into a very effective uh fighting force. And this was what allows the Bolsheviks to eventually triumph. Okay? So um in many ways the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution are very similar right so let's go over the similarities in both you have a poet okay Russo said freedom is general will Mark said freedom is classis then you have a prophet who leads everyone into the promised land through his peer faith as well as finanism okay so in the French revolution you had rose pier who said reason will set us free. Within the Russian revolution, you have Lenin who said violence will set us free.
And the last thing which we'll focus on in this class is then you have a messiah figure who comes and he and conquers the world to ensure the revolution succeeds. Uh in the French Revolution you have Napoleon right who said I'm the expanding empire. Okay. So his theory to ensure the revolution will survive is to expand outwards and conquer Europe is which is what he did. But then you have Stalin who is I'm the continuous revolution.
So the way that he maintains the the stability and the vitality of the revolution is by constantly purging his enemies. Okay. Very much along the lines of the cultural revolution in China. All right. So let's look at the similarities between Lenin and Pier.
Okay. Both are from the lower nobility. They're both poets in many ways and their families face downward mobility. So Lennon's father was an educator and member of the low low nobility but but Lennon's father died when he was young. Okay.
So Lennon and then Lennon's brother who Lennon really admired he was arrested while he was at university for plotting against the empire and he was and he was executed. Okay. Um but both are idealists. They sought to create justice in a world of injustice. Now the similarities between Napoleon Salon also really interesting.
They're both from marginalized minorities. Napoleon was Corsican. sound was Georgian and they felt persecution inadequacy. Okay. And so they became obsessed with obtaining power to escape their insecurities.
Right? So the similarities between these characters are very very enlightening for us. All right. So now we focus on Stalin. All right.
Um the background of Salin is this. His father owned a small shoe factory when Salin was born. But then um the father lost the uh factory and became an abusive alcoholic. Uh Salin was born was born poor and um he did well in school. He had a very loving Christian mother.
He did well in school but in high school he came in contact with Marxism and then he dropped out. Okay. So the fact that Stalin was a young man who suffered racial discrimination, d mobility, and an alcoholic father made him the perfect recruit for three types of organizations. Criminal networks, uh, revolutionaries, and the secret police. And guess what, guys?
He was part of all three networks. And he was a nexus of these three networks within Georgia. Okay. All right. So this is Stalin and he came from a very poor family and uh eventually he will rise to the very top.
All right. So some Wikipedia uh background about Salon. Okay. So we won't read all of it but I I want to point out some certain sentences. Let's let's look at this sentence.
He goes to Batuma and there his milit rhetoric proved divisive among the city's Marxists. some of whom suspected he was an agent of Alcatar. He was a spy. His mission was to um promote violence and organization within locality so the secret police can swoop in and arrest everyone. And this makes this makes a lot more sense than a poor man discoverism and then um uh is totally committed to the cause.
It makes more more sense that he was recruited as an spy by secret police in order to sow discontent and violence among the Marxists. Okay, let's continue. Silent began working at the Roths refining storehouse where he co or co-organized two worker strikes. After the strike, leaders were arrested. Okay, really important.
The moment he organized the strikes, the all these leaders were arrested. He he co-organized a mass demonstration which led to the storming of the prison. Okay. Salon was arrested in April 1902 and sentenced to three years exile in Siberia. Arriving in November 1903.
After one failed attempt, Salon escaped from his exile in January 1904. All right. So throughout this time he is getting arrested by secret police. But for the reason he escapes only after like a month. All right.
And the benefit of being arrested by secret police is what? He has credentials now. Right? You can only be a revolutionary if you are if you've been sent to Siberia by the secret police. All right.
So he so this is all very suspicious. Okay, let's continue. Um in in 1905 government troops massacred protest Salon was in Baku in February when ethnic lines broke out between Armenians and Azeris and he formed BIC battle squads which he used to keep the city's waring ethnic factions apart. So of all the Bolsheviks okay because at this point in history Lenin uh Trosky they're basically writing books. Stalin is the one who's out there organizing people, committing violence, uh, creating organizations.
In fact, he's the one funding the Bullshiks. Okay? Why? Because he assembles his gang, criminal network, which attack black hundreds and raise money through racketeering, counterfeiting, robberies, and kidnapping children of wealthy figures for ransom. He's the main financeier of the Bolevik party.
without him there would be no BVIS. And I would make the argument to you that he's doing this on behalf of the secret police, right? Because why would you do this? If you're stealing money, why not keep it for yourself and spread it to your friends and bribe the police? Why are you taking all this money and giving to Lenin, right?
All right. So ultimately, Stalin will triumph. Why? Because Lenin and Trosky, okay, his two main competitors were egoomaniacs who wanted to be proved right. Okay, they're intellectuals.
They're theorists. Stalin just wants power for himself. Okay, so Vladimir Lenin um he is the um one pushing for the revolution. He's the theorist, right? And as the Soviets um develop power um by the 1920s he's starting to have strokes.
His he's he's he's always been in bad health, but now he's really in bad health. And so now he has to figure out um who will succeed him. Okay. And ultimately he decides the best person to succeed him is Leon Trosky because Leon Trosky he's a hero of the revolution. He he he like stal sorry he like Lenin both believe in an international movement of communism.
They both believe that if communism is to survive in the Soviet Union that to spread it to Europe. They both believe very strongly that with one push because of World War I all of Europe will fall to communism. Okay. Stalin disagrees with them though. Stalin believes in maintaining communism within the boundaries of the Soviet Union.
Okay. And being a nationalist. And ultimately it is Stalin who will triumph over Leon Trosky and Vladimir Lenin and create his code of personality in the Soviet Union. Um most people assume that Stalin and Lenin were best friends because really without Stalin there would be no Lenin, right? But you also make the argument about Lenin to be no Stalin.
Okay? So so they were codependent on each other. So it's always assumed that they were best friends. But before his death, okay, um Lenin wrote a secret memo to the party uh leaders and he said this. Comet Stalin who's now general secretary, okay, so he's head of the organization department of the uh communist party which is which is a very important position having become secretary general has unlimited authority cultured in his hands and I'm not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution.
Stalin is too coarse and this effect. What Len is saying is this. If you let Stalin continue to amass power, he will become a dictator. Lenin is head of the or head of the bullshik, but he's not dictator. There's there's a committee rule.
Okay. So at this point in history, you would think that okay, Lenin is now leader and he's going to make it his mission to ensure Stalin is removed from the general secretary position and Stalin is removed as a possible contender for power over the Soviet Union. But then something happens which is Lenin has a stroke, convulsions and he dies. Okay, we will never know what really happened. But if you talk to medical practitioners who've looked at this case, they say, "Look, these convol convulsions are more indicative of poisoning than they are of a stroke." Okay?
So there's certain people, and this is not a mainstream view. There's certain people who believe that Salin poisoned Lenin because Lenin was about to remove Salin from uh position from from his position of power. Now, you're like, "Okay, that makes no sense." But at this time in history, there are three individuals that are in the way of silent amassing complete power. Okay, so Len we talked about, but then there's a man named Zachov Sarav. Okay, and he was Lenin's right-hand man.
In fact, he was the general secretary of the Bolshviks before Stalin. He was extremely co competent. And then at a very young age, okay, only his 30s, he dies of an illness. That's really convenient for Salin because now Salin can become head of the organized department of the BIC party and install all his cronies into position of power. That's really convenient for Stalin.
But guess what? 1926, head of the Czecha, Phelix Javinski. Okay, head of the secret police. He dies as well under mysterious circumstances. He has a heart attack and he's also really young.
And remember, the secret police is where the son of power in government is. And after he dies, Sal is now able to implant his cronies, his loyal subordinates into the secret police. Okay, so all this is like really convenient for Stalin even though we have no evidence that he in fact poisoned all three. It's just really convenient for him. All right, this is really weird how this really worked out for him.
We'll never know why. Okay, but you have to be suspicious. Okay, either he's the luckiest man ever in the world or he was or he basically just he killed everyone in order to amass power. And in fact he continues this in 19 from 1936 to 19 uh 38 there something called the great purge which is continued revolution. At this point in history what some will do is kill at least 1 million party members.
He destroys the um old guard and he does so by having the secret police purge the army and the procra and then secret units within the secret police purge those guys and then new units purge those secret units. Okay. And so on. All right. There are those show trials where the Bolshevik um leaders, the old guard um they confess to being traitors to the regime.
Okay. They um confess to being secret capitalists. All right. So let's look at the parts of the Red Army. This is from Wikipedia.
the parts of the Red Army and military maritime fleet removed three or five marshals 13 or 15 army commanders, eight of nine admirals, okay, 50 or 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 106 division commanders. So what he did was he he completely wiped out the entire leadership of the Soviet military. And actually this piece of fact is what sort of convinced the Germans to invade in 1941 because they're like well you know Salin killed off all the experienced officers and so let's attack them because they won't know what to do. Okay. But in fact you can make the argument and I think a lot of people have made the argument that this was ultimately beneficial to the war effort in World War II.
Why? Because you've removed all the dead weight. you remove the conservative uh generals who are not experienced with innovative warfare. All right. So by doing this what what sen did was make the Soviet military more innovative and more open and more flexible.
Okay. And so I I know this is a hard idea to understand. Let's just do a thought experiment to understand this idea. Let's say there's hundred of you students and you're shipped off to a desert island and you're forced to survive by yourself. Well, I mean, maybe in the beginning you would struggle, right?
You fight, but eventually I think over a couple weeks you would learn to get along and you would learn to survive on this desert island. Okay, that's that that's what I think would happen. I don't know, but I think I hope that's what happens. Now, let's let's let's imagine 20 teachers go with you guys. I'm pretty sure you're worse off, okay?
Because those 20 teachers would be more intent on maintaining a hierarchy of things than actually solving a problem. And so you can make the argument that by purging the army uh in the late 30s, Stalin made the Red Army more innovative and better prepared for the German invasion in 1941. All right. Now the show trials basically all the leading bullshiks anyone who could have possibly challenged Stalin were arrested and they confess to being criminals to being traitors to being spies. All right?
And all of them were of course innocent. These are loyal bullshiks who sacrificed their entire lives, their families in order to ensure the revolution would succeed. So why did they confess? Well, this is Arthur Kesler and he wrote a book called Darkness at Noon, which is really one of the best books ever written. Okay, just brilliant.
And in it he profiles an old bullshik leader and and he tries going to the mind of this person as he is about to be executed and he's he's remembering his life where for the revolution he killed everyone basically he sacrificed everyone he betrayed everyone he is guilty as sin but the moment that he's about to execute it he confesses to everything okay and the argument here is if you spend a if you spend your entire life doing bad things You're not going to admit this is all for nothing, right? He's going to do everything possible to save the revolution. If that meant killing himself in order to save the revolution, he would do so. So, think of the original sin, right? The original sin of the revolution is all this violence committed against civilians.
Well, now this bosik, he is like Jesus who is sacrificed, he will cleanse the people of their sins and allow for the revolution to continue. All right. So what was brilliant about this is Salin put these people on trial and he knew that ultimately they would confess and this would cement his power. All right. So let's summarize what we what we've discussed and think about how Stalin won it all.
Okay. So there are five reasons. Okay. The first reason is from an early age he won a charge of powerful patrons, criminal um um like mafia bosses, secret police heads, uh revolutionaries, right? And then he was actually loyal to them until he it was no expedience.
What's amazing about silent is he made everyone believe that he was loyal to them personally and absolutely okay that's that's his absolute power. Second is he always was able to identify capable subordinates and he promote them selflessly. Okay, so that's really important. Third reason is he understand silence can be more powerful than great speechm. Do not become too wedded to ideas and positions and let others despise you.
So Lman Lennin and Leon Trosky were tremendous orators. Okay, they were brilliant. The problem though is that by making these speeches it increases their hubris. It increases their ego and it makes them more wedded to ideas. Salin refused to give speeches.
So you can never understand, you can never know where how Stalin thought about things. Okay? That was his secret weapon. Also, no one took him seriously. Right?
At this point in history, everyone thought Stalin was an intellectual lightweight because at this point the Bik thought that whoever had the best theories were the most righteous leaders and Stalin didn't have any ideas of his own. Okay. Shuji retreats are most effective in times of internal conflict. So disappearing hiding offends no one and offers no risk. So another way of saying this is the secret police always arrested Salin at a time of tremendous conflict within the socialist movement.
Okay. So the split between Bviks and the menix. Stalin wasn't there. He was arrested. Okay.
So that's really convenient for uh Stalin. And then last is let your enemies destroy themselves. Accept who they are and help them become their worst selves. Okay, so Trosky uh lost out because Trosky was a was a tremendous egoomaniac. He pissed everyone off and Salin encouraged that.
Okay, so just let your enemies destroy themselves. And this is what he will do with Hitler as well. And that's how he won um uh World War II. Okay. All right.
So, um let's let's take a short break and we'll come back and do World War uh two. So um there's no way we can understand how Stalin was able to defeat the BVIC leadership and and so very simple formulation. Lenin Trosky were all priest okay but Stalin was a spy and so let's look at the differences priests have faith and conviction. All right you're trying to bring God to the world whereas a spy has multiple personalities. So silent could be a different person in a different to to two different people.
In fact, no one really thought silent was a serious threat and no one really took silence seriously. Right? Second is the priest have something called analytical intelligence. That's why they're able to write books. That's why they're able to give great speeches.
A spy has emotional intelligence. A spy is able to make you trust him. All right. The last is priests are concerned with the person of truth in God. Spies only want power.
Right? So if you think think about this way, if you look at this formulation, then the BVIS didn't really have a chance against Stalin. All right? Um so all right. So now let's go on to World War II.
And um there's tremendous debate as to what happened in World War II. It was a cat cal cataclysmic struggle between the Soviet Union and the Germans. Okay, tens of millions of people died in this war. It was a uh tragedy. Um so there's always going to be debate as to what happened.
Why did the Germans lose? All right. So let me give you my interpretation. Basically what happened was this. The Germans had a certain doctrine of war uh certain belief system going into the war and they executed this belief system this plan perfect perfectly in the blitz crack okay but when the doctrine of war failed um they couldn't adapt okay so the German doctrine of war is called blitz crack and the idea of blitzk is you very quickly cut off the head and the body collapses you basically go in and you destroy the command and control center of of the military.
That's what happened throughout Europe in the late 30s, right? That's what happened to France. In only about, you know, a few weeks, uh, Germany was able to cut off the command center of the French military and cause the French military to collapse. But the problem Soviet Union is that it's huge and there's really no command control center. So what was happening was even the Germans were destroying the Soviets, they were wondering around the um around Russia pointlessly for many many months.
Okay? They really didn't have a plan because the plan was always to destroy the head of the snake. But if you can't find the head, you're going to run aroundly. The Soviets are really good at fighting a war of attrition, right? Uh something called a scorch earth policy, which is how they defeated Charles II of Sweden as well as Napoleon of France before.
And that's how they also defeat defeated the uh Germans. Um the Germans are known for their organizational supremacy. Okay. But they're not known for the battle for flexibility. The Soviets even though they were losing many battles in the beginning of the war, they eventually adapted themselves to German warfare and eventually they were able to overwhelm the Germans.
And I think a lot of this flexibility had to do with the fact that they lost a lot of their ma major leadership um in the purges. So another way we're saying this is the difference between the Germans and the Russians is Hitler did not purge his military. Salin did purge his military and that's why the Soviets were much more innovative than the Germans in the war. Also um the Germans were fighting for something called libons roam. Limbrom means living space in German.
It's basically like if we are to survive as a German people as a German nation we need more resources. We need more land and so we need Ukraine okay for the espec es especially for the oil. But the Soviets were running for their motherland, mother Russia. So they were much more motivated to fight than the Germans. Now um it was so looking at this map you you'll see two things.
Okay, the first thing is the Germans were really spread out throughout the front. That allows for encirclement. Okay, that allows for the Soviets to attack them from different angles and encirclement. That's the first thing. Second thing is you will also notice that the Germans didn't get really didn't get get that far in this war.
They at most got to the outskirts of Moscow but not beyond. And the Soviet Union, if you just look at a map, it is huge. Okay. All right. So, um this was one of this is the deadest war in human history.
The Germans sent in um almost 4 million personnel and they overwhelmed the Soviets in the beginning, but it was not enough. Okay, 4 million men was not enough to conquer the Soviet Union. You needed 40 million and the Germans didn't have that. All right, so um what's a big deal? So the Soviets had unlimited resources.
They defeated the Germans. This is a big deal because let's go back to the year 1935. In the year 1935, if we were to have this class and we were to discuss what will happen 10 years from now, we could probably guess that the Soviet Union would collapse. Why? Because Stalin was purging all the major leadership of the Soviet Union, creating a lot of discontent, um, a lot of civil conflict as well.
If you look at a map of the world 1935, most of the world was capitalist. Japan which controlled the east was capitalist. Then you had the Germans, the Nazis rising. You had the English. Then you had the Americans.
And all four of these nations were under threat from communism. They were communist subversive in all these countries. And they were consider major threat. In fact, in 1930s there's a real threat that in America there would be a communist rebellion. The in Germany there's a failed communist revolution.
In France, in England, the communists were everywhere. Okay. So these four nations, Japan, the Americans, the English, uh the Germans, they all see communism as a major threat to them. So we could imagine that they would unite against Soviet Union at some point to destroy communism once and for all. Okay, that's the first thing.
Second thing is that at this point in history, race science is very popular. Eugenics is very popular. And guess what? The Americans, the British, and the Germans all of them saw themselves as one people. the Nordic people, the Aryan race.
In fact, Hitler was a tremendous admirer of the English people. They saw the he saw the English as brave um as brilliant as the master race. Okay. So, you can you can make the argument that uh the Nordic people would eventually unite together to destroy the Slavs which was a major threat to them in Europe. And the third major reason is at this time as Germany is industrializing the Americans are helping Hitler industrialize.
Okay, this is from ChachiBT. American industrialists invested heavily in Nazi Germany particularly before and during World War II. Okay, this is important. Major companies like General Motors, IT&T, Eastman, Kodak, Senate Oil and others had substantial assets and investments in German subsidiaries. So these American companies, the major American companies of the time was helping Hitler to industrialize its war machine.
All right? So given all this, you could imagine that America would eventually come to support Germany in a conflict with the Soviet Union. So at this point in history, the Soviet Union, it was unlike the Soviet Union would survive. Okay. But then in 1941, Hitler launches operation barbarosa.
Now this is one of the greatest mysteries um among historians. The mystery is this. Hitler had organized 4 million soldiers, a multinational force to invade the Soviet Union. spies, the Americans, the British told Stalin, listen. Um, Hitler's going to invade you.
Stalin refused to believe them. Stalin said, "Listen, first of all, I have a non-aggression pack with Hitler. We're friends. He's not going to invade me. Number one.
Number two is Hitler is being blockaded by the British. We the Soviet Union are providing all these resources, oil, food to the to the Germans. Why would they invade us? It's suicidal. And third of all, um, Germany doesn't have the resources to invade us.
Okay, so Stalin refused to believe that the Germans would invade. He believed it was a British and a fairest British plot to undermine the friendship between Germany and the Soviet Union. Also, there were um some German soldiers who were sympathizers to communism. They would run away and go to the Soviets and tell them, "Listen, we have I have all these secret plans of this invasion called Operation Barbar Roa. They're going to come.
The Germans are coming. Be be ready." And and what what the Soviets do? They shot them to death for being spies. Okay? So, Ger the Germans invade and the Soviets aren't prepared.
But not only that, but Stalin seems to be purposefully sabotaging the Soviet war effort. As the Germans are advancing, the Soviets should push back. Okay. But Sal orders the army to stay where they are. So they get encircled by the Germans.
And at this point, the Germans have more prison of war than they could possibly imagine. Millions and millions of Soviets captured in the first months of the war. It is a complete disaster. for the Soviet Union. And so everyone's like, Stalin has gone out of his mind.
First of all, why wasn't he ready for Hitler's invasion? He refused to believe that Hitler would invade. Second of all, why didn't he give his generals authority to run the war in the way that should have been run? Why did sudden interfere and destroy the Soviet army in the first few months? Okay, these are the two major mysteries of Operation Bar Roa.
Okay, I know this is gonna be controversial, okay? But I'm gonna make you this argument. Stalin purposefully did both things. Stalin purposely let Hither invade and Stalin purposely let millions of soldiers be captured by the Nazis. And you're like, that's insane.
Well, guess what happens at this point? Because the Nazis are destroying the Soviet Union, the Americans come in on behalf of of the Soviet Union. Remember, at this point in history, the Americans think they're going to go go to war against Soviet Union. Okay? The Americans want to ally with with Germany.
But because the Germans are about to destroy the Soviet Union, the Americans can't let this happen. If the if Germany destroyed Soviet Union, Germany would the German science, technology and organization would have access to Soviet manpower, oil and food. Germany would be invincible. So the Americans step in. But but but but look, let's look at what the American contribution of the war is.
In total, US deliveries to USRand lease amount to 11 billion, equivalent to $250 billion. over 400,000 jeeps and trucks, 12,000 armored vehicles, 7,000 tanks, uh 14,000 aircraft, 1.75 million tons of food. The Americans basically industrialized the Soviet Union, giving the Soviet Union unlimited resources, unlimited technology. Why? Because they're afraid of a German conquest.
All right. from from Wikipedia, roughly 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR. Okay? So, Americans gave about 17.5 million tons of equipment to the British. Sorry, so to to the Russians.
But guess what? When the Americans enter the war, they used a total of 22 million tons. That's incredible. The American army used the same amount of supplies that they gave to the Soviets. That's incredible to think about.
Um, yeah, there are millions of soldiers captured by the Germans. Okay. And it's a travesty what happens to them because most of them will starve to death. They starve to death not because the Nazis are barbarians, but because the Nazis had a doctrine of war would go in and after three months the would collapse. Didn't happen.
Now they're stuck with these millions of soldiers. Now they're in trouble because they can't actually deal with all this all all these soldiers and they don't have enough food and supplies to continue the war. Okay? So these prisons of war are a huge problem for the Nazi war machine. And because a lot of these soldiers are dying in prisoner camps, guess what?
It motivates the Russians to fight to the bitter end, right? Um World War II deaths. The Soviet Union lost anywhere between 26 to 27 million people. Okay. It is the greatest tragedy to befall a nation um in human history.
One of the greatest tragedies. Okay. And but okay that is true but let's look at something called game theory kind of factual. Okay. What what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you different possibilities different outcomes.
Okay. So let's just say um so everyone knows Soviet Union and Germany is going to go to war at some point. Okay. It's it's it's entirely obvious to everyone but and there are four possibilities. The first possibility is the Soviet Union invades Germany and threatens Berlin.
Okay, what happens here? Well, I guarantee you the Americans come in on behalf of Germany. The Americans send their military to defend Germany because they cannot afford for Europe to turn communist. Okay, so in this situation, guess what? Stand loses the war.
The Soviet Union is destroyed in scenario one. Scenario two, the Soviet Union invades Germany and is stopped at the border by the German war machine. Guess what? Americans still come in because they cannot afford for Germany to lose this war against the Soviet Union. Okay, the Americans still come in, suddenly loses.
Scenario two. Scenario three, Germany invades Soviet Union and is stopped at the border. And this is scenario. The Americans are laughing their heads off, right? Because fine, fight it out.
We don't care. Okay? And the Americans are probably going to sell supplies to both the Germans and Soviet Union. All right? To destroy both and eventually they'll come in to destroy both Germany and Soviet Union.
So in all three situations the uh Soviet Union loses. There's only one situation in which the Soviet Union wins. Germany invades Soviet Union and threatens Moscow. Okay, this is the only situation. There are 10,000 different scenarios.
There's only one scenario in which Stalin wins the war and he found it and he implemented it. Okay. But it required the sacrifice of 27 million Soviet people, soldiers and civilians. Only in this situation does Soviet Union win World War II. Only in this situation.
Every in every other situation, every other thing that sin does, he loses the war because the Americans will come in on behalf of Germany. And of course this war is fundamental and it changes the course of history because without this war without silent winning there'll be no maong there will be no communist China there will be no new China there'll be no today's China okay you have to you have to understand this communism was not inevitable it did not have to happen in fact you can make argument that in 1940s it was going to get destroyed by the capitalists it was only the start of one world war ii that China was able to turn communist okay So Stalin changed the course of human history. None of these things should have happened. Stalin made them happen. And of course we we we today have Vladimir Putin.
And Vladimir Putin I will argue to you is also going to change the course of human history. And this something I will argue to you next class. Okay. Stalin. So Stalin was the uber months of the 20th century.
I will argue to to uh you next class that Putin is really the uber months of the 21st century. He sees where history is going and he controls history to his benefit. Okay. He's going to warp reality uh to the benefit of Russia. Okay.
All right. So, um we have four great questions about uh today's lecture. The first question is how do the Americans feel about communism and fascism? Second question is um the Americans and the British were very close allies and we know this through land lease right where the Americans are shipping billions of like supplies to Britain for the war effort. So why did the British hate the Germans so much?
Okay. And the last the third question is um what was the sound strategy via V the Americans? And the last question is um um in the first few months then the Soviets were getting were getting destroyed. So what was Stalin's response and what did he promise the people to get them to fight to the bitter end? Okay, great questions.
Okay, so let's go over them one by one. Uh Americans at this time in history 1930s the elite they were heavy Nazi sympathizers. uh there was an American named Charles Lindberg and he founded something called the America first party and and he was very popular and there's a very good chance that he would have won uh the um elections in in America. So American isolationist is is very is the major dominant political trend and it was only when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor that the Americans entered World War II. If the Japanese didn't attack Pearl Harbor, it would have been almost impossible to um convince the American people to enter into uh the war.
Okay, so the Americans were either well I'm talking about the elite, okay? They were either neutral like we don't care where isolation is or pro-Nazi. Okay, so that was just the general attitude of Americans in 1930s. Communism was a real threat to America. So communism, anarchism were real threats to the American political system in 1930s, especially with the Great Depression.
Okay. So does that answer your question? Great. Okay. Question number two.
Um, so why were the British so intent on destroying the Germans? In fact, um, you guys don't know this, but Hitler made numerous peace overtures to the British, especially Winston Churchill. Um and um again I I the the Germans had tremendous respect for the British. They I mean like it's basically the same people, right? Um so why was so why was Churchill so intent on destroying Germany?
So um there are different historical arguments. One argument is Churchill just hated Hitler. Like personally he had a visual dislike of Hitler. Okay, that's number one. Number two is um the Germans embarrassed the British uh in the war, right?
Because the British sent this exponential force against the Germans and the Germans wiped them out. The the the British were forced to retreat at Dunkirk. Um I think for me the best reason is just geopolitical. All right, so let me explain what I mean by this. So this is something called the Mckender thesis.
Okay, this was developed after World War I. The idea is this. Britain is a naval power and as long as it's able to dominate the seas, it controls the world. Okay? Because at this time in history, uh most people are trading through um uh through sea.
So Britain, as long as Britain is able to control the uh waterways, it controls the world, right? But there's a problem here. The problem is, let's just say that a power arises within the heartland, okay? And it could be Germany and it could be Russia, okay? But it's going to be one of these two.
And if they're able to to unite or conquer each other, then they unite the entire European Asian continent, in which case all they do is build railways. And then Britain ceases to exist as an empire. Okay? So the great threat is a great power emerging within Europe, Asia to unite the entire heartland. And the British believe this, but also the Americans believe this as well, right?
Because the Americans were eventually inherent British Empire. And so at this point in history, Germany was conquering all of Europe and was about to conquer Russia. So Britain's um geopolitical interest was to ensure that Germany would be uh hindered. Okay. So um I know in the history in the history books that you're taught that World War II was a great conflict between Britain and Germany for democracy and u human freedom.
That's nonsense. Okay. World War II was fought primarily between Germany and Russia. Three4s of German forces were um directed at Russia. Most casualties were happening between Germany and Russia.
What Britain was doing that was vital was blockading Germany. And as Germany was running out of food and fuel, it had no choice but to invade the Soviet Union, especially Ukraine, in order to access the resources of Russia. Okay. So this idea that uh the British and the Germans o always had to fight. I mean it's it's something it's something that that that became mythology after World War II.
During World War II um Hitler wanted peace. Britain wanted to ensure Germany could not expand um to the east and create the heartland. Okay. So that's what's what's driving British interest at this time. Does that make sense?
Right. That's Does that make sense to you to to you guys? All right, let's go to the third question. Um, Stalin strategy for the Americans. Okay, so what stable able to do that's different from everyone else is, you know, if you're Churchillo, you're thinking in terms of Europe.
You're if you are uh uh Hitler, you're thinking in terms of like Europe, right? They're all euroentric. What son was able to do that made him different was he was able to see the world as it is. Okay, he was able to see the Americans. He knew the Americans would eventually come into the war.
He was able to see Japan. Okay, and the reason why is um at this time communism is an international movement. So he had spies everywhere. So he was able he basically had the best intelligence in the world. So he's able to figure out exactly how these pieces were going to move about.
So for him it was like okay I go conquer Germany but then the Americans come in and the Americans destroy us. Okay. So the main problem were the the Americans because the American at this point remember had the greatest industrial capacity in the world. Whichever side the Americans support would win the war. All right.
So Stan had to figure out a way to neutralize the Americans. And the best way to neutralize Americans is let's be friends. Right? Because America's democracy. If Roosevelt is saying, "Uncle Joe is our friend, right?" And he has all these photos in the press of Stalin and Roosevelt shaking hands, having these uh these conferences, then the Americans cannot go around and and backstab the Soviet Union.
And guess what? After World War II ended, after the Germans were defeated handily by the Allies, there were many Americans, especially uh General Patton, who was one of the main generals in World War II. He recognized that oops we made a mistake. The real enemy are not the Germans. The real enemy are the Russians.
And uh this would eventually give us the cold war. So was after World War II the Americans realized we were duped. All right. We should not have come on be come into this war on behalf of the Soviet Union. We should have stayed neutral or we should have supported Germany to maintain balance of power.
All right. So um Stalin just tricked everyone. that that's why I say he's the overman. It should not have happened this way. If you just think about logically what each party um what each player in the game should have done um then the Soviet Union should have collapsed.
Okay, so Stalin was able to trick Hitler, right? He convinced Hitler to invade him. He can he tricked Roosevelt. Um Roosevelt became his supporter. Okay, he even tricked Churchill.
So I mean I I I I I know this is not what you're taught in history class usually, but just look at it like just analytically, okay? Using game theory analysis, then you have to conclude that Salin was the only one who saw the world globally and was able to manipulate people to his benefit. All right? And that's what's then by the way this this is what's happening today with Putin. Okay?
Putin is the only one who's able to think globally and he's able to he's he's only and he's the only one able to think strategically. everyone else like Trump um he's only responding to domestic um issues. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense?
All right. Let's move on to the last question. Stalin uh what did he promise the Soviet people? He didn't have the problem with anything. He was he was God.
Okay. Do you understand this? He could do what he did because he was God. Any other leader who pulled this crap would have been arrested and executed for incompetence. only Stalin who because of the great purge consolidated power only in his hands.
His authority was unquestionable, right? He had spies spying on spies and he had other spies spying on these spies. Okay, so he created this like divide and conquer system within the Soviet Union which made his power absolute. In fact, you can you can make argument that he was the most powerful person ever in human history because no one could question his authority. So he could afford to do this.
he could afford to make mistakes and um and and and and look like a buffoon because no one could challenge him. Okay, does does that make sense? All right. And ultimately the Soviet people rallied around him because they didn't want to be conquered by the Germans. Okay, they wanted to save their their nation.
And Salin knew this. Okay, this is very famous quotation attributed to Salin. It's not true. He actually didn't say this. U but he could have said this.
He said um 1 million people die in a gulag that's a statistic okay no one cares one man's gets run over by a tractor that's a national tragedy so he understands intimately how people think he understands psychology of both individuals and of nations and such he's able to manipulate people control people to his will all right I think we could add one thing to that like to your question like what could actually promise people during the time of war. And one of it was that for the first time since he had power, he he kind of turned on the top of Russian patriotism because like just with the Soviet ideology um there wasn't really a space for a new old Russian identity. It was a new Soviet identity that was being created, right? And during the and so what that meant was that like you close all the churches you kind ofum rid of traditional culture and all that kind of stuff. And during the war, the churches opened up again and it was it was able to create a certain amount of unity amongst the population that was otherwise kind of divided by ideological civil.
Okay. So um that that's a great point. Thank you. Okay. So um his major contribution to uh theory communist theory is the idea of nationalism, right?
Because what made him different from Trosky and Lenin was he was only concerned about the Soviet Union. He wanted to maintain the integrity of the Soviet Union whereas Trosky and Lenin were concerned about international communism. They saw the Soviet Union as the little brother um in the movement. Germany would be the big brother because Germany had the most proletariat. It was the most urbanized and maybe the French as well.
But the Soviet Union would be the little brother to the Germans when the Germans eventually rebelled and established the the the communism. Okay. So Lenin and Trosky were fundamentally in nationalist whereas um Salin understood people don't want that crap. Okay. People want to feel part of a community.
People want to feel part of a place. And so he heavily promoted nationalism which galvanized the people um as Doug says into making tremendous sacrifices for um during World War II. So people die not for ideas, people die for each other and that's what understood fundamentally. Okay. So yeah, mother Russia was was his promise to the people.
Okay, does that make sense? Any more questions? Okay, great. So, next class. All right.
Thursday, the grand finale to the course. We've done the entire human history. Okay. From the Ice Age when we were just living in caves. On Thursday, we'll finish the course with the grand finale, which is the American Empire, Trump and the American Empire.
Okay. So, hopefully that will be the best class of this year. Let's let's let's end let's end with the best class.