This authority was used to quickly turn the USSR into a powerhouse, defeat the Nazi regime, back countless anti-colonial and pro-liberation struggles, and quickly rebuild after WWII with the roughly 27M casualties as a result of pushing back against fascism and Nazism. It was impressive and necessary. If you read Stalin, you'd have to admit that he was an economic genius and a genuine Marxist. Disagree with his personal style and many of his actions? Go ahead, but don't deny someone's good because of certain mistakes. Please understand that Russia was among the worst places to live before being wrecked by WWI, then wrecked again by civil war, then wrecked again by WWII. By the time they had the chance to come up to take a breath, the US was putting missiles in a semi-fascist regime (Turkey) as a part of Operation Gladio. Gorbachev did everything to appease the West, but he wasn't good enough. Then he used Boris Yeltsin, and still the West refused to accept Russian people as true Europeans. There was no concentration of power. In fact, it was the complete hostility from outside forces preventing any real power from going to the Soviets in the first place.