Was Comrade Stalin evil?

[Ice]

Stalin was an angel.

[Longbowman]

He suffered from severe paranoia and eliminated his own officer corps due to it. He killed millions of people (though I would not agree he killed tens of millions). It is known he signed off on hundreds of thousands of executions and even more expulsions to gulags. He also uprooted and transported entire ethnicities because of real or perceived collaborationism amongst some of their number (gee, can't imagine why). And whilst yes, the USSR helped defeat Nazism, let us not forget they started the war allied to the Reich, and took part in the German invasion of Poland (also securing the Baltics for themselves before invading Finland) and only switched sides because the Krauts pulled the ol' switcheroo on them first.

I don't believe in evil people. However, if I were to believe in evil people, Stalin would come quickly to mind.

[Dragoon]

I am not sure. I like him, because he was a strong man. And he defeated Hitler and the Nazis, saved the Soviet Union. And he modernised the Soviet union 100 years ahead. The Soviet Union was a superpower only rivaled by the USA. But on the other hand I read he killed many people. What do you think?

He was certainly responsible on some scale of millions of deaths. Does that count?

Pretty much all the Cold War numbers were overestimates (propaganda purposes).

The more modern academic figures after release of documents executed, gulags, and famine are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess..._Joseph_Stalin

There were actually several famines but the most known is the Soviet Famine of 1930s. Was it deliberate is debatable, but certainly happened (the Russian, Ukrainian, EU, UN governments acknowledge it).

[Not a Cop]

Not exactly. As much as we hate communism, it's hard not to have some admiration for Stalin for being one of the most capable rulers in history and turning his poor, backward country into a superpower with nuclear weapons in 30 years. He did kill tens of thousands of people, but many of the deaths were attributable to famine. He killed Trotsky, and encouraged Nationalism to a degree. He wasn't a good person though.

You should really study the situation in Russia in early XX cent. Most of economic growth was a continious movement, not a a result of Stalin's magic rule.

[Rumata]

You mean Jewish lapdog mutts?

Why the Jews? He restrained their power.
I mean the Russians of course. Those whose survival as a people was granted while Stalin ruled.

[Ülev]

No. He was a peace loving humanitarian.

I could agree, peace in Russian means "mir", but means the whole world also, so he wanted peace = conquer whole world, isn't it?
https://translate.google.it/#view=ho...BC%D0%B8%D1%80

[Teutone]

I am not sure. I like him, because he was a strong man. And he defeated Hitler and the Nazis, saved the Soviet Union. And he modernised the Soviet union 100 years ahead. The Soviet Union was a superpower only rivaled by the USA. But on the other hand I read he killed many people. What do you think?

killed millions of people, destroyed churches, killed clerics and forced atheism.

biggest bastard after Mao and Hitler.

[Crimean]

Anti-Soviet is always a Russophobe.
Because if he thinks with brains, he will understand that at the time of the so-called "Stalinism" the power was in the hands of the Russian people. And so the collectivization and industrialization they hated was also conducted by the Russian people. Stalin and his team were simply coordinators of this process.
When you try to spit at Stalin, accusing him of millions of people shot, you spit at the people!
When you try to tell about the war won by the prisoners thanks to Lend-Lease, you spit at the people!

And the counter-revolution of 1991, was carried out from the top, and no one asked the people. Rather they asked, but the opinion of the people was not interesting.
And yet, more than 64% of Russians would like to return to the USSR (and in 2000, there were more than 80%).

[itilvolga]

Honestly, i find Hitler more crimeless than Stalin. You get the answer here.

[Nazarene]

Communists are all evil