Stalin’s government tremendously improved the living standards of people in its territory, and compares favourably to almost all (if not all) European leaderships of 20th and 21st centuries (including European settler-colonies, but those are even more obviously awful). I’d say that he wasn’t ‘shitty’.
The “shitty” I’d quantify as the sometimes downright underhanded defense of the ideology of the party of his age, more than any direct moral failings on his part. Or a commentary on the necessary rules of engagement for revolt in Russia traditionally suck for the revolutionaries and those who follow them and attempt to safeguard their philosophical ideals.
Granted, you’re right, came in joking a little hot and heavy and I could have explained my punchlines better
Stalin’s government tremendously improved the living standards of people in its territory, and compares favourably to almost all (if not all) European leaderships of 20th and 21st centuries (including European settler-colonies, but those are even more obviously awful). I’d say that he wasn’t ‘shitty’.
The “shitty” I’d quantify as the sometimes downright underhanded defense of the ideology of the party of his age, more than any direct moral failings on his part. Or a commentary on the necessary rules of engagement for revolt in Russia traditionally suck for the revolutionaries and those who follow them and attempt to safeguard their philosophical ideals.
Granted, you’re right, came in joking a little hot and heavy and I could have explained my punchlines better