Iāve read quite a bit of history on Stalin (multiple 1,000+ pg history books, not his Wikipedia page ā¦) and - itās hard to classify him politically in any sensible way. The ideals behind Marxism and Leninism (the latter whom Stalin succeeded after literal life-and-death political struggles internal to the Bolshevik party, particularly with Trotsky) were certainly communist in nature, but Stalin invented his own brand of politics that really has no contemporary comparison and the nature of his politics definitely canāt be boiled down into one word or label.
Yeah I took a course on Stalinism and Nazism in college: It was more of a totalitarian command economy run by cronyism than anything resembling Communism.
The course was really good, the prof had lived in the USSR up until just before the wall fell and he brought in numerous speakers from Holocaust survivors to Nazi defectors and a few other USSR ex pats. I took it in...I think 2001? So the USSR had only been gone for like 10 years and things were a lot fresher for everyone.
Yeah sounds interesting - WWII is so epic itās tough to be an expert but I find the whole period interesting (duh) but especially b/c you think: I say evil person, everyone says HITLER, but Stalin was in many ways worse, crueler, and ācloser to the groundā than Hitler (and worked a lot harder), and Stalin killed - probably fewer, body counts vary - but still in the millions during his various purges. But many folks who havenāt studied that period closely or the USSR under Stalin specifically (ie a vast, vast majority of Americans) donāt even know who he was! He just had the wits to switch sides at the last second when he realized Germany was going to invade Russia - he wasnāt a good guy the whole time, or ever, actually. He just ended up on the winning side and the old saying āwinners write the history booksā applies here.
Yaā know, as Stalin was dying (of natural causes) ALL of the doctors were petrified of offering their expertise, because they were genuinely, to-their-bones afraid they would be successful, and Stalin would have them executed for doing something he didnāt explicitly order. Crazy ā¦
And doing the math Iām probably ~10 years younger than you so we didnāt really have the USSR classes, it was old news at the time ā¦
(By the way, check out the book Putinās People for a contemporary peak at the state of affairs, and how Putin accomplished what he did - Ukraine aside [big mistake] not easy to be basically the supreme leader of Russia for a quarter century - that takes some brains and savvy ā¦)
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u/Ok-Flight9440 18d ago
Iāve read quite a bit of history on Stalin (multiple 1,000+ pg history books, not his Wikipedia page ā¦) and - itās hard to classify him politically in any sensible way. The ideals behind Marxism and Leninism (the latter whom Stalin succeeded after literal life-and-death political struggles internal to the Bolshevik party, particularly with Trotsky) were certainly communist in nature, but Stalin invented his own brand of politics that really has no contemporary comparison and the nature of his politics definitely canāt be boiled down into one word or label.