He was not paranoid enough. He was way too lenient with a lot of party members that really ought to have been purged or more thoroughly investigated, because clearly as soon as he died, there was a coup from within the party by all the secret oppositionists who promptly took over the country and smeared him for literal decades.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 39 points 4 days ago

the USSR did get invaded by Nazi germany, there was a legit dissident faction within the party and ultimately Stalin died mysteriously and got smeared by his succesor. Afaik, a paranoid is someone that ultimately prepares for things that don't happen and most things Stalin prepared for happened.

[–] ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.ml 33 points 4 days ago

There was a general culture of normalization of excessive violence due to the 2 world wars and one civil war they just had to endure plus the lasting legacy of the brutality of the Tsardom.

Stalin himself though, the characterization of him as being paranoid is false, people usually point to the doctors plot as evidence of this but if you read into what Stalin actually did and said during this, he kept throwing doubt on the investigation due to a lack of evidence, he was actually a moderating voice - not paranoid.

[–] Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Here is a little trick for you. If the US govt/orgs they back say a bad thing about a communist its either A. Not even slightly true, or B. Extremely exaggerated, and made to sound worse then it was/is.

Stalin was based af btw.

[–] Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 3 days ago

this is not to say no communist has done shitty stuff. just that theyll always blow it way out of proportion.

[+] Cruxifux -31 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It sounds like near the end of his life he was. He was also a huge alcoholic and forced his close government members to get hammered with him every single day. It seems more like alcohol onset dementia to me to be honest but it’s hard to say, especially being from North America and trying to sort out the truth through layers and layers of capitalist propaganda.

[–] REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml 36 points 4 days ago (2 children)

He was also a huge alcoholic and forced his close government members to get hammered with him every single day. It seems more like alcohol onset dementia to me to be honest but it’s hard to say, especially being from North America and trying to sort out the truth through layers and layers of capitalist propaganda.

Yeah lots of lies, pretty much all of what you wrote that is wrong. Stalin smoked a lot, he didn't drink excessively. Towards the end of his life that had take a toll, as did his habit of only sleeping 3 hours a day for years. The man worked himself to death.

As for the question of OP: No. Quite the opposite, he was almost too trusting towards his fellow people. One of the people who confessed during the great purge of having conspired to kill Stalin was defended by Stalin even while in jail.

Stories of Stalins bodyguard are also interesting, it took some serious convincing to use cars and not just walk through around all the time.

In the west the great Purge is presented as result of unfounded paranoia. Witnesses from the time and documents from the soviet archives (some very recently made available) tell another story. There was widespread organized sabotage, assassinations,collusions with foreign governments and several plots to coup the USSR. There also were excesses during the purge, do not get me wrong, but there were aboslutely threats to the state afot, too.

ProlesPod did cover the period with a truckload of sources if you are interest in further research: https://prolespod.libsyn.com/ Episodes 69 to 71.

[–] trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 4 days ago

The entire Stalin Eras series was solid, that starts at ep 63 and covers everything from pre-revolution to death and has a really long episode about the Great Purges and how western media REALLY fucks that one up (yes, they hapoened but not anywhere near in the way we are taught in school)

[–] Cruxifux 18 points 4 days ago

I am interested in that! Thank you!

[–] sleeplessone@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows Stalin was actually a stoner.

[–] ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

this meme is certified by marxist-leninist-weeder gang (MLW)

[–] sleeplessone@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

MLM: Marxism Leninism Marijuanism