Do you think Stalin's Soviet Union was bad or good?

[ADFSDF1996]

I personally think it was a oppressive regime, it was just as evil as the third reich. It made life difficult for various people. It caused so much death. During WWII the red army and the NKVD committed atrocities against the people of Eastern Europe (including their own) and Eastern Germany. They also mistreated their POWs.

It was so bad that after Stalin died in 1953, the Soviet Union went through a process of "De-stalinization" to purge all influence of Stalin.

A very evil regime

A bad regime

A neutral regime

A good regime

A great regime

[MarkRet]

Stalin was the first to start 'Russianizing' all the non-Russian Soviet republics. He settled thousands of Russians in these areas for the purpose of controlling them. The effects are still going on in Ukraine, where the Russian minority there causes as much shit as possible for the Ukrainians (and of course Putin backs them up).

Stalin had some guy (I forget what his name was) running the NKVD who was a perverted monster. He had his thugs just grab women off the streets and into his car so he could rape them.

The Soviets killed more people than the Nazi's ever did. The difference was that the Soviets never documented any of their massacres, while the Nazi's documented everything they did, so the evidence made the Nazi's look worse.

The Soviets unknowingly brought the Nazi's to power in Germany, by ordering the German communists to line up with the Nazi's in the 1932 elections (Stalin hated the German Socialists even more than the Nazi's, and thought the German communists would prevail in a Nazi-communist alliance).

Most of the technology the Soviets gained after WW2 was what they stole from the Germans after the war.

[OlderAndWiser]

Stalin was paranoid about someone trying to dethrone him so he killed much of the leadership of his military, explaining why the Russian Army had such difficulties in WW II.

[ElissaDido]

Stalin was much worse than Hitler and killed more than Hitler. Yet i don't understand why history books don't trash him as much as they trash Hitler.
Soviet Union was an evil regime and was responsible for a man made famine that killed more than the Holocaust in Ukraine.

[christian_witch]

Because the Soviet Union paid the butchers bill in the European theater. If not for the Soviets tying up vast portions of the Nazi military then German would be the lingua franca in Europe. It made it difficult to paint him as bad as Hitler due to that.

[Artonford]

just one word: Jews.

[Artonford]

and when u hear about the holocaust its only about 6 millions (the jews) ... there are other 6 millions (handicaps, colored, homos...)

[christian_witch]

Stalin killed Jews in large numbers as well. So it's not that.

[christian_witch]

It's more than 6 million though. The Holocaust muesam thinks the total number of people killed during the Holocaust excedes 20 million now.

[Artonford]

Nope... they were never targeted

mostly muslims thou. , maybe thats why

[christian_witch]

Uh yes they were. Among other groups that he went after.

[ElissaDido]

@christian_witch Muslims weren't really targeted by the Nazis, but they were targeted by Stalin who killed Ukranian Tatar Muslims and Russia Muslims

[christian_witch]

I never said they were.

[Artonford]

Jews supported stalin, as for the war against the Nazis... why would he ever kill them

[BanterBlitz]

Stalin was "on our side" Through necessity and for as long as it suited him.

[christian_witch]

Because anti semitism ran deep in most of the western world back then.

[RegularTK421]

Many Muslims were aligned with the Nazis. There were a few Bosnian and Albanian SS divisions, along with the grand mufti of Jerusalem aligning himself with the Axis powers.

[zagor]

Because he generally killed his own people.

[SnowHearth]

Hitler killed more than Stalin. People say more Soviets were killed by Stalin than Hitler, because they like to inflate the statistics including the military deaths from WWII.

Comparing civilian deaths only, Stalin didn't kill as much as Hitler and other dictators.

[SnowHearth]

It was a bad regime, not as evil as rusophobes paint it, but it was bad.
The Red Army didn't comit atrocities it was the only the NKVD, which sometimes dressed as Red Army soldiers in order to maitain their cover.

[vishna]

Considering he was an evil murderer and the people had no say, yes, it was bad, it was terrible.

[vishna]

thank you for mho

[ADFSDF1996]

You're welcome.

[HonestGirlAlways]

Communism is nazism wearing a good guy mask.

[HonestGirlAlways]

Meaning that I think every communist regime, just as every fascist regime, to ever exist was bad. Lenin, Stalin, Chavez, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung were all just as bad as Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet. The only actual difference is that Germany for example admitted to being guilty of the horrors they committed under fascist regime, whereas countries like China and Russia still pretend those murderers were heroes.

[IHateLife]

Very well said. I hope you speak to your friends about this. Assuming you're in the west, we have far too many people your age that want communism and their brainwashing from universities needs to be stopped.

[Artonford]

maybe the other way around... communism is actually much worse

[Artonford]

but nothing is worse than the European colonists in general

[Nexus966]

WHAT THE FUCK.

[HonestGirlAlways]

@Artonford yeah I have to agree. Colonialism was definitely the greatest genocide that we have records of.

[madhatters4]

i voted bad. could say evil as well. he killed millions, suppressed anyone who could be identified has having beliefs that were not in line with his communist beliefs.

it's not nearly as bad but sadly ideological suppression still occurs in Russia

[Blitzkrieger]

Stalin was the worst dictator to have ever lived. After all anti communists were round up and shot He
started kidnapping random citizens to kill them and told the people they were anti communists.

He was so extreme that he eliminated his own people from even pictures. iliketowastemytime.com/.../...mmissar-vanishes.jpg

Bolshevism is the biggest modern cancer that exists.

Stalin never signed the geneva convention. Nobody cared if they were mistreating prisoners of war.

[ElissaDido]

Agreed, weirdly history books don't mention the man mada famine in Ukraine, Holdomore that killed millions of ethnic Ukrainians.

[Eugene]

@ElissaDido
because it's a myth made for likes of you.

If you wish to know why it's a myth, get some online translator and read this:
https://www.contrtv.ru/common/2729/

[ElissaDido]

@Eugene rule number one: never trust a Russian "source".

[Eugene]

@ElissaDido
Oy vey, I forgot.

[Z-100]

It was definitely evil and very corrupt. But one thing that places them behind Hitler and other similar regimes is that they did not partake in the systematic genocide of any groups. There is something very evil about the total eradication of a single group of people for being born a certain way. That's what makes Hitler so evil, he intentionally wanted to eradicate all jews, it did not matter if they were good people, if they were doctors, carers, parents, children, babies, none of that mattered to Hitler. That's what makes him so evil.

[ATuairiscean]

History doesn't paint Stalin very well when Lenin died - They were two sides Trotsky who wanted to spread communism by making the Soviet Union a success, an example to inspire others about how communism can work. Stalin wanted to make the Soviet Union as strong as possible and then look outwards. Stalin won and went about his work ruthlessly, in modern times I doubt any world leader killed more of his own people. He defeated the Nazis in WW2 by having a scorched earth policy retreat and burn everything, create famine to starve the Nazis but how many leaders are mad enough to create famine for their own people as well.

[Phoenix98]

It was bad, evil, the people were suffering, scared anybody who spoke out disappeared or was visited by the KGB. I'd say almost as worse as the Nazi regime if not as worse.

I don't anyone who truly experienced real communism would in their right min say it's good or great.

Nazism is the most evil modern regime that has found it's way into the earth but Communism is the second and it's last much longer and continues to persist to this day and has killed more people due to it's longer reach and the many more years it's been around.

During the Nazi regime 20,946,000 people were killed out of combat as a result of purges, camps and other methods. this is not counting the deaths caused by the Nazi military to the Allied forces.

Communism has killed 94,000,000 during the last 100 years or so. This number is the combination of all communist nations together.

[Anonymous]

It wasn't good, but it wasn't as bad as the nazism. However, USSR would have been much better with Trotsky in charge, Lenin wanted him to be the successor. Stalin was extremely cruel dictator, he's the main reason why western people think bad things about "communism and socialism", despite the fact that Stalin's politics wasn't socialist nor communist at all. His system should be called Stalinism, a brutal totalitarian dictatorship based on cult of personality and propaganda of intimidation and imposing one man's opinion to entire collective (just like in North Korea).

[SJKut223]

I have polish heritage and have family members that escaped after WW2. They said when the Red Army came through that they were really happy at first. Eventually they started treating them poorly. He said they rounded up everyone that was educated and they "disappeared."

[zagor]

Just like the Nazi's, they were trying to eradicate Polish culture.

[SJKut223]

and they knew there would be much less resistance if they got rid of the educated members of the population

[SilverRain92]

It's wrong to compare Soviet Union with Third Reich because these countries are incompatible. Atrocities committed by Soviet army in Eastern German y are quite comparable to atrocities committed by US and British soldiers in Western Germany, but due to the Cold War Western people prefer to forget about that.
Stalin's regime was inhumane of course. But thanks to industrialization organized by Stalin's regime Soviet Union was able to destroy Nazi Germany, to win WWII and to save Eastern European countries (and the whole world) from genocide and German concentrating camps.

[SilverRain92]

It helped to China to win a war with Japan and punished Japanese war criminals who killed a lot of people.
Unlike Hitler, Stalin did not want to conquer the world and to destroy the entire nations. His main goal was to preserve his authority and to ensure security for Soviet Union. Though his methods were very inhumane, only totally brainwashed people can compare Stalin's Soviet Union with Third Reich claiming that they were equally evil.

[zagor]

Actually he did try to expand the Soviet Union. North Korea was a Soviet invention.

[I-am-a-nobody]

Basically, Hitler and the USSR divided Poland among- themselves on September 1, 1939.
Can't imagine the US/Brit "atrocities" approached Stalins's in East Germany. Look at West vs. East around 1990 and there's no comparison. The Berlin Wall wasn't to keep people from escaping from West Berlin to East Berlin!

[Eugene]

Both ups and downs. Mostly ups.

He did what he had to do, given the time it all happened.
He was an exceptional leader, however, and one has to be a special breed of a moron to deny that.
I can't name anyone else that received literally broken country and left it with an extremely strong economy, army, infrastructure and nuclear weapons.

[BellePepper]

Eugene you seriously worry me.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
?

[BellePepper]

Like here's this series of horrible horrible nightmarish events and you're like "yeah it was good"

That's not how a normal and healthy person thinks. That's how a crazy person thinks.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
I believe you fail to see a bigger picture.

I make an adjustment to the times when he was in power; Empire collapsed, it was severely behind in technology, infrastructure, industry and so forth. It was also surrounded by enemies, both within and outside of a broken country.

I highly doubt folks in the US (if you're actually in there) even remotely know just what the fuck collapse is (at least for now, kek).

So he did what he had to do. There was no time for lollygagging with each and every moron/libtard/dissident/demagogue there was. Drastic measures were required... and ultimately it worked. He received a broken country and upon his death left it with exceptional industry, economy, military and nuclear weapons.

That requires exceptional leadership.

[BellePepper]

Eugene this is you justifying why it's okay for you to think this way and I'm telling you it's not okay.

The big picture is billions of people dead for no reason. And yeah American kids take this class called *History* so we're p good on exactly what happened.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
>> billions

I can see what kind of history you're taking indeed.

[BellePepper]

OMG gag messed with auto correct what a surprise!

It doesn't change the fact that people died who didn't need to and you're trying to justify it.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
I just know a bit more how geopolitics work than you and that sometimes a leader may face a bad choice between a bad decision and a very bad decision.
So far I'm quite positive you'll never be one.

[BellePepper]

No Eugene. Hard choices are things like how best to save your people from starvation. Not purposefully choosing to starve, enslave, and murder your people.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
I think I'm done explaining, especially to people that have a very vague knowledge on our history.

[BellePepper]

People know all about what Stalin did to his own people and to others. You need to accept that what he did was WRONG and admit it instead of trying to justify and glorify

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
Which "people"? Self-centered folks living on the other side of a planet that often can't even pinpoint their own country on a map?
Of course they're top-notch experts on Russian history and especially the conditions we were in after the collapse of Russian Empire.

And if you read carefully, I said that there were ups and downs; but ups mostly.

Do me a favor, quit trying and failing at being an expert on my country.

[BellePepper]

I don't even need to be an expert bro. This topic is not nuanced. Mass murder is super easy to understand. Even Americans can manage it so it should be *super* easy for you.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
>> I don't even need to be an expert
Exactly! You have barely any knowledge on the times and conditions of the country when he received it and the threats we were facing at the time; such conditions require drastic approaches. He did what he had to in order to have a country to survive by getting rid of folks like you -- ie if you're not part of a solution, then you're part of a problem -- and it worked.

[BellePepper]

Bro we both know Stalin didn't "receive" Russia. He fucking murdered his way to Russia.

Oh! So you do admit he murdered people now! PROGRESS

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
for some reason I remembered a quote by a minister of one of your neighboring countries:
- if you kill your enemies, they win.

So applicable.

[BellePepper]

Your countrymen are not your enemies. They are your *neighbors* and *community*.

[Eugene]

@BellePepper
Traitors, paid dissidents & saboteurs classify as "enemies" in your book or not?

[BellePepper]

Apparently being in Ukraine in the 30s automatically makes someone a "Traitor, paid dissident and/or saboteur" now? How interesting.

Oh! And let's not forget about all the people who were murdered just because they had a college education. Or the priests. Because they were def super evil. And who else... oh that's right everyone.

[BellePepper]

So you're just skipping the entire Holodomor?

[BellePepper]

It's not a myth. You saying that is like me saying the civil war never happened. Go look at a site that isn't run by the Russian government. Jesus why would people even need to lie about that? Is your country really to the point that they have to rewrite history?

[SomeGuy37]

I don't know much about his Regime, but it seemed bad, almost 'Hitler' Bad, but I haven't reasearched it beyond the weapons that have been imported, and sold, cheap!!
I bought many, classic Mosin-Nagant rifles, and surpluss ammunition. The seller told me that these were 'Never fired, and only dropped once!'
They shoot true, and well up to the 300 meters, with surpluss ammuition.
Mostly just 'Collector Pieces' for me, but ROBUST, SOLID rifles!!

[Iraqveteran666]

When you look at what Stalin did pre ww2 it's just as bad as the nazis. Don't forget that Stalin sold out the allies to Hitler at the start of the war for half of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

[SilverRain92]

It's not true. Allies hated Stalin and Soviet Union and tried to persuade Hitler to attack Soviet Union instead of them. Soviet Union tried to create collective defense with Western European countries but they were interested. Then Western European countries betrayed Czechoslovakia. Only after that Stalin decided to cooperate with Hitler in order to divide Poland which occupied territories which belonged to Russia before the revolution and suggested Hitler to attack USSR together.

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 that's crap Stalin had attacked innocent Finland at the time and the allies wanted to support them. Stalin was greedy for old Russian imperial territory. The western powers were powerless to stop Czechoslovakia falling and America remained in isolation.

[SilverRain92]

It's not crap. Before attacking Finland Stalin suggested Finland to change the territory near Saint Petersburg what was gave to Finland by Russian emperor Alexander III when Finland was s part of Russian Empire on some equal territory because he didn't want Saint Petersburg to be located near the border. Also he remembered that Bolsheviks gave independence to Finland after revolution. I don't justify the war, war is a tragedy. But Finland could be more thankful for gaining independence. Finland finally became Hitler's ally so it's not innocent at all.
It's not true. Western countries were powerful enough to stop Hitler and Soviet Union was willing to help. But they preferred to cooperate with Hitler instead. Nowadays Western people prefer to forget about that. They created the myth that Stalin is responsible for WWII as well as Hitler and European countries are innocent victims. Such a bullshit.

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 Finland became Hitler's ally because the soviet union attacked them and stole territory. It's not Russia's right to dictate boarders or invade sovereign countries like Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Stalin getting into bed with Hitler is what made Hitler's conquests possible that is a fact, knowing that if he invaded Poland Russia would not attack meant everything. The 20 million Russian lives lost after barbarossa are on Stalin's head because he made it possible, Hitler buttfucking Stalin was pure karma

[SilverRain92]

I know it, but it does not justify this Finland's decision and doesn't make Finland "innocent" country like you mentioned. Finland was Hitler's ally, it's a fact.
When arguing historic questions you should remember which epoch you're talking about. At that time sovereignty of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania was debatable at least for Soviet Union. Additionally you should know that parliaments of these countries voted for joining Soviet Union. It reminds me the decision of some Eastern European countries join NATO after the end of Cold War. But OK.
In the case of Poland Soviet Union just gave back the territories which were illegally occupied by Poland in 1920. I highly recommend you to read about Kerzon line and to look at Poland's border after 1920. It was a Soviet revenge.
Yes, Stalin is also responsible for this failure, I totally agree with you. But his main goal was to prevent a situation of war against Germany while Western Europe stays neutral. He reached it.

[SilverRain92]

This war could be prevented earlier if Europe had agreed to the suggestion to create European collective security system made by USSR in 1930s. But Europe denied them and allowed Hitler to occupy Czechoslovakia partly and then wholly. So European countries are also responsible for deaths of so many people because they did nothing when war was possible to prevent

[zagor]

@SilverRain92 After the war one of the German generals admitted that they had totally committed their forces to the attack on Poland, and Hitler didn't expect England and France to respond even to the very limited extent they did. He said if France and England had attacked with full force in September 1939 they could have taken Berlin in a week.

[Iraqveteran666]

@zagor Britain wasn't in a position to being across the channel and France hid behind their fortifications.

[SilverRain92]

@zagor Such a sad truth :(

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 sad that the Soveit union got into bed with the Nazis and ened up with a German sausage up their backside?

[SilverRain92]

@Iraqveteran666: Such a brainwashed perception of history. During the 30s (1935-1938) Soviet Union suggested to create collective security system in Europe for several times, but all its suggestions were turned down. After that Western countries betrayed Czechoslovakia and allowed Germany to occupy it partly and then wholly. Poland was quite hostile towards USSR and suggested to Germany to attack Soviet Union together. Also in 1920-1921 it illegally occupied some territories belonged to Russia. In this situation Soviet leadership had to deal with Germany because other countries did not want to cooperate and pursued a policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 In May 1935, the USSR concluded pacts of mutual assistance with France and Czechoslovakia; the Comintern was also instructed to form a united front with leftist parties against the forces of Fascism. The pact was undermined, however, by strong ideological hostility to the Soviet Union and the Comintern's new front in France, Poland's refusal to permit the Red Army on its soil, France's defensive military strategy, and a continuing Soviet interest in patching up relations with Germany.
When Nazi Germany entered Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union's agreement with Czechoslovakia failed to amount to anything. On April 17, 1939, Stalin suggested a revived military alliance with the UK and France. The Anglo-French military mission sent in August, however, failed to impress Soviet officials. Stalin favoured Germany.

[SilverRain92]

Soviet Union was ready to help to Czechoslovakia, but its government didn't ask Soviet Union for help.
European states didn't want to cooperate with Soviet Union in order to contain Germany.
After Western countries allowed Hitler to occupy Czechoslovakia which was their ally, Soviet leadership lost trust to Western countries and preferred to deal with Germany in order to postpone German invasion

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 they preferred to deal with who ever gave the territory just look at the attack on Finland.

[SilverRain92]

Yeah, starting a war with Finland was a stupid decision. The main goal of Stalin was to take back the territories belonged to Russian Empire

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 agreed Russia was humiliated by the Finns and the Germans took note.

[zagor]

@SilverRain92 You have it wrong. Hitler tried to convince the West, particularly Britain, to join him in attacking the Soviet Union. He basically took France to clear the way for him to attack the Soviet Union.

[Iraqveteran666]

@zagor exactly the Soviets sowed the wind with poland and reaped the panzer shitstorm.

[SilverRain92]

@zagor Western countries didn't want to fight at all. They just hoped that Hitler would attack Soviet Union instead of them

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 there were two threats Russia and Germany so yeah let them fight it out. The only reason Finland didn't get more British support was because Germany had just attacked Poland.

[SilverRain92]

You see. Western countries saw Soviet Union as an enemy and didn't want to cooperate to fight with Germany. This is the reason why Stalin preferred to talk with Hitler. He had no choice

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 the soviet union was an enemy their invasion of Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1939 and how it held half Europe behind an iron curtain without free elections for fifty years shows that.

[SilverRain92]

It's truth. Finland was not innocent. Soviet Union just got back Russian territories which have never belonged to Finland.
It didn't want to change this territory and didn't want to deal with those who gave it independence. Later it support Nazis. So don't call it innocent.
Soviet Union did not start the Cold War. Western countries started it. This was the main reason of iron curtain existence

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 what territories were those? Finland was occupied by Russia for hundreds of years pre 1917

[SilverRain92]

Carelia (the land near Saint Peterburg) has never belonged to Finland before and became Russian again after this war. This territory belonged to Russia from the beginning of its establishment in 9th century

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 in the 9th century when the stole it from the finns

[SilverRain92]

I would recommend you to learn history better. Nobody stole this territory because it did not belong to any state at this moment. Finland became a sovereign state only with the help of Russia. Russians gave it autonomy and helped to create institutions when it was a part of Russian Empire.

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 it belonged to the Finnish people as did most of North West russia

[SilverRain92]

It didn't belong to them. They did not have any statehood and their density was low. Other nations lived there as well. After establishment of first Russian state they joined it.

[Iraqveteran666]

@SilverRain92 their density was low because they had their land stolen

[AleDeEurope]

It was worse than Nazi Germany...

It's kinda sad liberals praise the Soviet Union :/

[Nexus966]

They don't tho

Liberals are capitalist m8

[AleDeEurope]

@Nexus966 Lmao right xD

[SilverRain92]

It's not true. If you are an European the existence of the Soviet Union and industrialization initiated by Stalin are the reasons why your grandparents survived and why you were born.

[AleDeEurope]

@SilverRain92 Not really. Actually, Hitler did more for my country than Stalin xD

[SilverRain92]

If you are a German, how can you even write that Nazi Germany was better than Soviet Union? I think that you should be well aware of terrible crimes what Nazis and German soldiers committed. And by the way it was Stalin who did not allow to Britain and the USA to divide Germany into a lot of small states after the war.

[AleDeEurope]

@SilverRain92 I'm not German lol I'm well aware of what the Nazis did, doesn't change the fact the Soviets were worse. The only reason we don't see the Soviets as bad as the Nazis, is because they were part of the Allies fighting against the Nazis, that's it.

[SilverRain92]

So I'm just interested where you from. Western people have no right to judge how bad was Soviet Union, because the victims of Stalin's regime were Soviet citizens not Western people. You sound like a citizen of the country which belonged to Axis powers like Romania or Hungary. These countries have nothing to be proud of if we are speaking about WWII. Their governments consisted of cowards who urged the population of these countries to help Nazis in committing their terrible crimes

[AleDeEurope]

@SilverRain92 I'm from Spain lol We do have a right to judge the Soviets. Just because we're from the West doesn't mean we can't judge. So you're saying we shouldn't judge what Mao did? Smh dude

[SilverRain92]

The perception of 20th century history in your country has been distorted by Cold War propaganda. Claiming that a country who saved Europe from Nazis by destroying 75% of German troops was worse than Nazi Germany you approve it.
Actually 18693 Spanish soldiers also participated in German invasion against Soviet Union. This is the reason why you can't judge. Of course you can express your opinion, but it would sound hypocritical.

[AleDeEurope]

@SilverRain92 No, it has nothing to do with propaganda, but reality. Stalin killed more people than the Nazis. The Soviets didn't just stick to themselves, they tried expanding, and hence bringing terror with them.
I know Spain offered some men to the Germans, but that doesn't mean I can't judge. I wasn't one of those men that fought for the Nazis. I wasn't one of the people in favor of that. I wasn't one in favor of Franco, the fascist. I wasn't alive, hence calling me a hypocrite because I judge the awful regime the Communist were, is retarded.

[Mexicoman101]

It racked up many more casualties than the third reich, although it was less about racial genocide as much as about starving people and quelling dissent. I also don't like how it gave a bad name to socialism by proxy of being a failed attenpt at communism.

[disgustingweebtrash]

In order for the Soviet Union to survive, Stalin was necessary. Trotskyites and Tsar loyalists were a threat in the Party and the country, another civil war could have broken out, civil war and deal with Nazi Germany or just deal with Nazi Germany? I'd take the latter.

[Artonford]

Brainwashed people wake up usually after the end of the dictator... but some will never

[disgustingweebtrash]

@Artonford troll

[Crapulux]

I can't believe no-one mentioned the single most relevant book on the matter?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago

[FatherJack]

Just ask my deceased ancestors from the Ukraine / Hungary borderlands!!!

[christian_witch]

Stalin was a brutal dictator that wasn't much better than Hitler or Mao. Hard to see much good about him.

[EpicDweeb]

If you have any questions about whether or not it was a good regime, read "Dancing Under the Red Star." It should clear up any doubts one has on the topic.

[ThisDudeHere]

My parents and grandparents have lived through it and they mostly agree that it wasn't all that good.

[BCRanger10]

His regime murdered 20 million people, spread all sorts of lies all over the world and was run by a lunatic. It was a bad time for the world.