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Dictatorial powers helped the elimination of the Nazis. Stalin understood logistics, and he understood how to win battles, or at least, how a leader can aid in his generals doing that. The so-called purges, so touted by capitalists and Trotskyites alike, were Stalin's ideas on how to regularly purge the party of a bureaucracy. On the small level, there is the example of the 25 000, who eagerly combatted bureaucracy and were given the right to do so by Stalin himself. The "issue" of Stalin's pay raises (I can't see any particularly decadent thing about Stalin's life post-General Secretary) isn't really an issue at all. He was a leader, and the most important man in the Soviet Union. He should be able to relax. I don't see how the assertion that "proletarian democracy" were destroyed or even damaged in the USSR. In fact, Stalin maintained and improved such constructions. He struggled for revolutionary democracy within the party, and that is damned close enough to your touted proletarian democracy. Proletarian democracy in a nation largely full of backwards-thinking peasants is completely unproductive. Instead, Stalin set out to educate these people. Everything in moderation!

The USSR was socialist. Anyone who argues that ought to chill their nuts in a Siberian ice box.

If Stalin, as you say, took his ideas from Trotsky, why did Trotsky oppose them so? Stalin chose some of Bukharin's policies, and some of Trotsky's, and some of ANYONE WHOSE IDEAS WOULD WORK. That's what a leader does. A leader does not b***h and moan about how nobody wants to play the game their way.

The so loved "last testament" of Lenin's was the result of a man who had become unstable. This was a man who continued to work despite knowing his health would be worse for it. This was a man who was angry at Stalin for a single display. Lenin's history with Stalin tells a different story, and I hold nothing against Lenin for saying something in the state he was in during the last days of his life. The Great Lenin made his opinion on Stalin clear before that senile drivel. Stalin over Trotsky! Progress over whining! You, as a Trotskyite, should understand the great advances that took place under Stalin by the eager and willing Proletariat! You should defend these advances! Is this not what Trotsky would have you do? Instead you buy into the capitalist lies. It is not up to a single nation to propagate revolution in other countries. Such a policy is diplomatically suicidal! Stalin wanted the USSR to set foot into the world theater, not cry sic semper tyrannus and be similarly executed! And did not the comintern help provide weapons to the Maoists in China? How can you say that it was dead as a revolutionary force? Your people are petty, completely discarding this or that an organisation, so long as it bears the maligned title of "Stalinist"!

Stalin's contributions during the Civil War cannot be underestimated. In 1918, Stalin was sent to Tsaritsyn (To become Stalingrad) where he immediately organised a chaotic front, opposed Trotsky's two generals there, and won over Krasnov. That same year, Stalin was deployed to Ukraine, where he successfully destroyed Skoropadsky's regime. Again the same year, when the situation in the Urals became worse, Stalin was sent to destroy Kolchak's reactionaries. There he purged the poor comissars established by Trotsky, criticized both Trotsky and Vatsetis, and brought to light some of Trotsky's failures in the area. It was in light of this event that Trotsky was criticized during the 8th congress for his (wait for it) dictatorial manners and adoration of specialists. All of these actions were as much as could be expected by a comrade, and to say that Stalin did nothing is historically revisionist and indeed, treacherous to the Communist movement.

You're unaware that the Hearst press sent a man by the name of Thomas Walker (True name Robert Green), who had never BEEN to the Ukraine, to establish a story about how wretched the situation was? The Nazis provided him his story, and he found his own false photographs to use. The 30 million "statistic" that Green propagated was based on Nazi propaganda, and those that even consider the famine should seek better reference. Yellow journalism is the only reason there are any bad things to be said about Stalin's regime beyond things that can be expected.

Granting the proletariat about 30 more years of life expectancy is suffering? I wasn't aware. Teaching the entire nation to read, giving women a place to give birth in... The industrialization was not a picnic. Look at the industrialization in Great Britain. Then look at the industrialization in the Soviet Union. One was better managed than the other, and it was not the imperialist one. You're one to talk about Mensheviks, considering that Trotsky was one up until the very eve of the revolution. Stalin's loyalty is unquestionable.

Right, sorry. That Kolchak bit was supposed to say "Urals". Oh wait, nevermind, it did. You misread, dear Comrade. I don't whitewash over what Stalin did, I merely reevaluate based on historical circumstance, and it's clear that much of what has been said of the man is bullshit. I can't defend everything, and certainly every murder wasn't productive. It's unfortunate, but what of it. Considering Poland INVADED the RSFSR, I don't think it can be considered that they lost, so much as they nearly destroyed Poland only to be defeated at the last moment. Are you forgetting that Vatsetis was arrested? The Central Committee then had to refuse Trotsky's resignation. Why would Trotsky, if he were such a loyal comrade, resign over something so trivial? Stalin merely saw a tendency in Vatsetis that resulted in his arrest.
Besides, I'm not a Stalinist. I merely maintain that he did what made sense.

Nice try but the SRs and Mensheviks had the Urals.


Really? I'd love to see what you say about people you hate then.


Considering Poland INVADED the RSFSR, I don't think it can be considered that they lost, so much as they nearly destroyed Poland only to be defeated at the last moment


I do forget what was he arrested over?

Considering Lenin was going to resign over not signign Brest-Litovsk I don't think that's something that's really altogether unsurprising.


You pretty much glorified his victories in the Civil War as much as he did. Krasnov wanted to secure the Host regions, Tsaritsyn was not in the Cossack host regions at all.