Stalin

I see him as a neccesary evil.....

Likewise, he was a big man, and big men do make big mistakes, however a lot of his mistakes are unforgivable.

you are right, but if anybody had that much power, he can no longer be what he was, he will try to instill his beliefs in others, because he believes he is right and the people (appear to)believe him also.

power corrupts.....

Just look at all the kings in the world, how many tyrants, how many saints.....

Power does indeed corrupt the corruptable, however he should never have even gotten close to power, as Lenin wrote in his will, he wasn't right for the job.

Yes, how many time have children and even adults disobeyed their parents and the results are mixed, if your parents told you not to do something you despertely wanted what would you have done, stop......

another thing, everyone is corruptable, it just takes a bit more for some people......

I see him as a neccesary evil.....

There's a difference between doing something in your house and taking over a country, he should've been stopped...

As for everyone is corruptable, I disagree, sure you can try but some just seem to give you the brick wall stance.

He was a bad man, but he helped to defeat a badder man.


Thats my advanced summary of the situation.

this
the things he did are unforgivable, every family in russia has lost people to his horiffic purges

however without stalin's brutal but rapid industrialisation of the USSR in the 30s germany may well have won on the european theatre of the war, resulting in even greater loss of life

saying that Stolypin's economic reforms in the early 20th C were analysed and apparently if the russian empire wasnt broken apart and the revolution didn't happen, its economy would have surpassed what was achieved by stalin in 193-something, ie before the war

but obv that raises the point of what would have happened if the russian empire didnt pull out of WWI

A true historian, balancing the good and bad. but ashame we can't see what would have happened, I believe stalin was neccesary but I don't agree with everything he did.....

yes, very much so but what has happened, has happened and we cannot change it, merely analyse it and learn from the mistakes - he DID achieve the "end" because the USSR did beat germany - but the "means" certainly didn't justify it at all, it could have been done without the bloodcurdling loss of life of the purges

Are you applying to do history in uni, I just never heard anyone give a balanced view on satlin except myself , Yes you are right and think how stalin would have looked if the cold war got hot.....

Bad......

see sig, above lol - i did history up to GCSE only but i've been interested in it as far as i can remember - also i was born in russia, so obv this particular historical figure is of direct relevance to me

i don't think that it would ever have happened thou tbh, i reckon stalin knew that a nuclear engagement would be too devastating - and at the time the USA had a larger fleet of strategic bombers AND more bombs so the engagement would have hardly been on "fair" terms, if such a word can apply - plus the USSR would keep the moral high ground by having the USA as the only state that has used nuclear weapons outside of testing

re mao: russian and soviet events has had much more impact on european history than chinese ones, so obv it would be studied much more in european schools - also the whole cold war thing of "soviets are bad" is ringing even now imo