The Western and the liberal consensus on Joseph Stalin:

Stalin was an evil autocrat who seized all power from his people to establish a brutal and murderous authoritarian regime.

Stalin in reality

Stalin: Please, let me resign in peace. This is the fourth time I am submitting my application.

The central comittee: Dear Comrade Stalin, we have rejected your request for the fourth time. See you at work tomorrow.

  • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
    24·
    4 days ago

    if Stalin didn’t die from his heart (or more likely , poisoning from Beria.) then it’s likely Stalin would of been leading the USSR well into the 1970s considering the average life expectancy of the USSR at the time.

    • AverageWestoid@lemmygrad.ml
      8·
      4 days ago

      I mean yeah, though to be honest I think after WW2 Stalin was dealing with a shit load of stress (well, even before then, during the begining of operation Barbarossa the guy has a massive mental breakdown for like more than a week, probably due to the sheer speed of the German advance and how it looked to be almost unstoppable at the time.) so I think Stalin trying to resign in 1952 was likely due to stress related reasons, not to mention if Stalin simply resigned and well, didn’t die of either stress or poisoning (not that it really matters since the guy who may have did the poisoning was killed like 5 nanoseconds after Stalins death.) then it’s likely that a seemly succession process could of been held which would keep out cringelords like Kruschev or Beria.

      Basically the moral of the story for future or current AES states, if your amazing leader wants to retire, then let him/her, sure you’ll lose their guidance but there’s probably a reason why they want to retire yknow?

      • DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml
        3·
        3 days ago

        massive mental breakdown for like more than a week

        Iirc this is Khrushchev revisionism. Or at least the secretary notes and hours (or whatever they’re called, showing the comings and going of people out of Stalin’s office by the hour) show Stalin meeting with leaders and working tirelessly for like 40 hours straight prior to and after the invasion. Then he goes home and presumably tries to sleep, but returns like 4 hours later to work another 24 hours

        /\ this is off the top of my head and definitely not 100% accurate. I have my notes and possibly the source somewhere, I’ll see if I can dig them up.