Was he elite or shit?

I can't express how much I want you to leave this board

File: 1495961447844.png (252KB, 480x480px) Image search: [Google]

252KB, 480x480px

>>2967927
Stalin's enemies continued to underestimate him even when it became increasingly clear he was not the country bumpkin they'd hoped

Stalin read a lot, and even wrote books and articles.

He did the reading in secret, not sure about the writing, but he had a secret bookshelf that he would hide once people visited him. He tried to come across as plain as possible, then when his enemy felt superiour and lowered his guard he would strike, sometimes they wouldn't even know Stalin was behind the strike. I don't think FDR ever had a clue of who Stalin really was

File: 1497395144124.jpg (389KB, 1032x1315px) Image search: [Google]

389KB, 1032x1315px

While Lenin and Trozky wanted to continue the revolution and bring it to western Europe, Stalin took the leadership of the opposition. That opposition had a more realistic and comfy objective: to create a communist society in just one nation. This objective made it easier for the party members to take as much powers as they could, making the USSR an authoritarian/feudal state. You can see why the party gave so much power to Stalin. Then shit got out of hand, and Stalin went full-autism about defending the USSR form the world. This paranoia, not entirely unjustified, led him to the massive industrialization (and starvation), an essential element of a modern army.

I personally think he was a monster, but I doubt that without him the USSR would have survived the Barbarossa operation.

>>2967978
Russia can't be conquered though

File: 1472666293448.jpg (842KB, 3564x1870px) Image search: [Google]

842KB, 3564x1870px

>>2967981
Once you take Moscow, Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) and a few other cities in western Russia, you basically did it. Look at the russian civil war

>>2967927
You've well and truly retarded and there's nothing anyone can say to you if you think Stalin was anything but bad.

>>2967978
Don't fool yourself, he did nothing but hinder the war effort. Its incredible the soviets won despite him. The purges before Barbarossa destroyed the entire chain of command by killing off almost every experienced commander. The soviet intelligence network was completely destroyed by the purges as well, which was actually one of the best in the world at the time. The only reason the soviets survived Barbarossa was because they were completely fucking insane and managed to endure the two most brutal sieges in human history.

>>2967978
>While Lenin and Trozky wanted to continue the revolution and bring it to western Europe, Stalin took the leadership of the opposition. That opposition had a more realistic and comfy objective: to create a communist society in just one nation.
False. Stalin considered that impossible. His strategy was that the Soviets needed to build up a hub to "build the conditions for socialism" rather than letting their society crumble trying to "export" revolution.

Both Lenin and Trotsky supported this position at various points.

>>2967981
Large parts of Russia have been conquered many times. Russia has even been under complete Mongol rule for centuries. How can Russia not be conquered?

>>2968049
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_One_Country

>>2968070
Jewish lies

File: 1497720604123.jpg (90KB, 599x493px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 599x493px

>>2968077

>>2968077
>opinion discarded

>>2968070
This doesn't contradict anything I said anon.

socialism =/= communism

>>2968160
It neither contradict the fact that Stalin used the "socialism in one country" argument to gain power against Trotzkj.

btw, sorry for using in a misleading way "communism" and "socialism"

>>2968242
>It neither contradict the fact that Stalin used the "socialism in one country" argument to gain power against Trotzkj
I think it was less about "power" and more a case of him actually believing it - which isn't too far fetched as it was the more sensible position.

That said, both theories were fucked because the Soviets lost any chance of achieving socialism with the failure of the German revolution. Best they could do was create a strong bourgeois state.