Opinion of Joseph Stalin

[100% pro-choice no matter what]

For the purposes of this poll, I have to vote FF.

A seriously overlooked aspect of Stalin’s tenure has been in putting into place a plan more so similar to the proposals of the Wilson administration after WWI. Arguably, the lack of war among Central and Eastern European states relative to Yugoslavia shows that something was indeed working according to a bourgeoisie standpoint.

For the purposes of this poll, I have to vote FF.

A seriously overlooked aspect of Hitler's tenure was...

[Alben Barkley]

Horrible person, but one of my favorite historical figures when it comes to how interesting I find him.

There's nothing mysterious about him.

He was a gangster who by luck came to power and used his gangster experience to remain in power, he also copied the Tsarist policies to an extreme.

Think Al Capone as President, or any villain from a Western (which is why he liked those films, the characters reminded him of his younger years).

His major mistake was thinking that Hitler was just another gangster like him.

You're absolutely right.

And just like I am glad we (as in the US/Allies) allied with the Mafia against Mussolini, I am glad we partnered with Stalin, monstrous as he may have been, to destroy the worst and most dangerous man to ever disgrace the face of the planet.

At the end of the day, regular criminal scumbags like Capone and Stalin may be terrible people but they're not INSANE. They are motivated by rational things like money and power. We can work with that. What we can't work with is an ideologically motivated maniac who believes it is literally his destiny to cleanse the Earth of all who oppose his bats--t crazy ideology.

I honestly understand why Stalin thought that MUST have been all a schtick at first, and that realpolitik would win out in the end; after all, SURELY this Hitler character must not ACTUALLY be crazy enough to LITERALLY believe all Slavs and socialists are subhumans who must be exterminated, I mean he relies on us for oil! Lol, if anything we'll invade HIM before he even THINKS to invade us!

....

Seriously, looking at it from a purely rational and non-ideological perspective, Stalin probably would have been right about the man he was dealing with 99 times out of 100 if it was anyone else. He just couldn't comprehend how absolutely insane HITLER truly was. Hitler was such a unique threat not because he killed more people than other dictators, but because of just how much of a massively destabilizing force he was to the entire world thanks to the fact that he actually got high on his own supply. Stalin would have been just as happy to be a ruler in Tsarist Russia as he was in the Soviet Union; he couldn't have been less ideological at the end of the day. Hitler was his total opposite in that regard.

Also lol, it is completely unsurprising to me that PSOL and Big Abraham, perhaps our most prominent resident tankies, voted FF. They are ironically more similar to Hitler than Stalin in that they, too, actually believe the nonsense they peddle. Stalin himself would laugh his ass off at them. The idea that he actually cared about socialism/Marxism/communism is utterly hysterical. Stalin cared about only one thing: himself. Again, that makes him the lesser evil because it means you can actually work with and reason with him over a truly insane nutjob like Hitler. But it doesn't mean he was somehow a good guy. We never had any delusions about who we were working with; Churchill famously compared advocating for Stalin over Hitler to advocating for Satan himself. It was a purely pragmatic alliance, and we're lucky actually we could make such a thing with a pragmatist like Stalin; I have argued before that had someone like Trotsky been in charge instead, things might have been much worse because he was nowhere near as pragmatic and might have refused to cooperate with the West.

So that is the one tiny bit of praise I will give Stalin: He was sane enough to work with as an "enemy of my enemy." That is literally it, however. Any unironic claims he was an "FF" instantly out whoever is making them as just as bats--t as Hitler.

[AtorBoltox]

Nice to see you Biggie

Stalin was horrible because of the mass collectivization of 1928, the famine in Ukraine in 1932, the purges of 1937-38, the invasion of eastern Poland, baltic republics and Finland in 1939-40, the assassination of Trotski in 1940. But I don't include what he did in the war against the nazis in his list of horrors. Wars are never clean. Even the US and the UK played dirty sometimes.

Punching left isn't going to make you one of them y'know

Imagine the level of sociopathy required to think the only reason someone could have for not liking a tyrant who killed millions of people is because they want to be 'one of them' (whoever 'them' is supposed to be)

[redjohn]

One of the worst HPs in history. Ruined so, so many lives for personal gain.

[dead0man]

Nice to see you Biggie

Stalin was horrible because of the mass collectivization of 1928, the famine in Ukraine in 1932, the purges of 1937-38, the invasion of eastern Poland, baltic republics and Finland in 1939-40, the assassination of Trotski in 1940. But I don't include what he did in the war against the nazis in his list of horrors. Wars are never clean. Even the US and the UK played dirty sometimes.

Punching left isn't going to make you one of them y'know

Imagine the level of sociopathy required to think the only reason someone could have for not liking a tyrant who killed millions of people is because they want to be 'one of them' (whoever 'them' is supposed to be)

hey man, he kept the peace in Eastern Europe post WWII, what's not to like?

[All Along The Watchtower]

The embodiment of an immensely wicked regime.

[Sir Mohamed]

A mass murderer and totalitarian dictator who's responsible for millions of deaths and many more ruined lives. Extreme HP.

That a small majority of users serious try to defend this vile monster is pathetic.

[25 Abril/Aprile Sempre!]

And just like I am glad we (as in the US/Allies) allied with the Mafia against Mussolini, I am glad we partnered with Stalin, monstrous as he may have been, to destroy the worst and most dangerous man to ever disgrace the face of the planet.

That did not actually happen, what happened was that AMGOT helped the Mafia after Mussolini had already been vanquished (from Southern Italy), which I personally think was unfortunate.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Still not as depraved, dangerous, or destructive as his Maoist comrades in Peking, I’ll give him that.

[Alben Barkley]

And just like I am glad we (as in the US/Allies) allied with the Mafia against Mussolini, I am glad we partnered with Stalin, monstrous as he may have been, to destroy the worst and most dangerous man to ever disgrace the face of the planet.

That did not actually happen, what happened was that AMGOT helped the Mafia after Mussolini had already been vanquished (from Southern Italy), which I personally think was unfortunate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborations_between_the_United_States_government_and_Italian_Mafia