Was Stalin the only dictator of the USSR? To what degree was

Stalin wasn't a dictator. Read J Arch Getty. He's a liberal historian from Louisiana, hardly sympathetic to Communism or Stalinism. Yet after thoroughly reading archival documents, he was forced to admit Stalin was not a dictator. In his analysis, the purges were a result of competing local officials turning on each other, and the central government being too weak to prevent them.

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>>3078889
Stalin and Lenin (towards the end) had popular support but were dictators, everyone after had below ~50% approval but was technically put in in place through a democratic process except Khrushchev who is just hated all around

>>3078914
Interesting. You got any excerpts?

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>>3078914
come on bro , if Stalin wasn't pulling the strings they wouldn't have left him for dead in the end

>>3078914
Spotted the tankie nigger.

>>3078924
Can't find anything on google. But here's a good review of one of his books on goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1633652894

>>3078930
What?

>>3078889
The government was never democratic but after Stalin, there were more checks and balances to prevent a total dictatorship from emerging. See: the deposition of Kruschev by Brezhnev.

>>3078920
There was no "democratic process in the USSR". The "elections" consisted of a ballot with the one candidate put forward for a position by the party that you vote to "approve".

>>3078914
This sounds absolutely stupid but what can you expect from a communist.