Joseph Stalin

He wanted to harvest the food and sell the surplus overseas.

Oh, dude, people comparing Stalin to Mario? That's like saying a potato is the same as a pineapple. Stalin was a ruthless dictator responsible for millions of deaths, and Mario is just a plumber who jumps on turtles. I mean, sure, they both wear hats, but that's where the similarities end.

Estimates of the number of people who died in the GULAGs, Soviet forced labor camps, vary widely. Historians' estimates range from 1 to 2 million to more than 5 million deaths. The exact number remains a topic of debate among scholars.

Stalin was a ruthless dictator who sought to consolidate power and control over the Soviet Union. His regime was characterized by suppression of dissent, political purges, and mass executions. His thirst for power and ideology drove him to commit atrocities in pursuit of his vision of a communist state.

Stalin believed in "Socialism in One Country," focusing on building a strong socialist state in Russia before spreading the revolution globally, while Trotsky advocated for "Permanent Revolution," aiming to incite revolutions worldwide to support the global spread of socialism. Stalin emphasized centralized power and control, consolidating authority within the Communist Party, whereas Trotsky favored more democratic processes and international collaboration within the socialist movement.

Yes, George Orwell strongly disagreed with the actions of Joseph Stalin. Orwell was a democratic socialist who believed in social justice and freedom of expression, while Stalin's regime was characterized by authoritarianism, censorship, and widespread repression. Orwell criticized Stalin and his totalitarian practices in works like "Animal Farm" and "1984."

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist who founded Marxism. Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary and politician who led the Bolshevik Party during the October Revolution. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, known for his authoritarian rule and industrialization policies. Leon Trotsky was a Marxist revolutionary and theorist who played a key role in the Russian Revolution, before being exiled by Stalin and assassinated in Mexico.

Yes, there is a communist salute known as the "clenched fist salute." It involves raising a clenched fist in the air as a symbol of solidarity and resistance. It is often used by left-wing and socialist groups to show unity and support for the working class.

Truman doubted Stalin's motives because he saw the Soviet Union as expansionist and aiming to dominate Eastern Europe. He believed Stalin was not interested in promoting democracy or maintaining peace, but rather in spreading communism and increasing Soviet influence. Truman's doubts were further fueled by Soviet actions such as the occupation of Eastern Europe and the Berlin blockade.

No, Stalin was not a German leader. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. He was born in Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time.

He didn't. There are a lot of myths around Stalin's legacy, mostly invented to discredit Marxism-Leninism. Some of the Old Bolsheviks did end up being traitors, some even in collaboration with the Nazis (an extremely anti-Bolshevik group) and were executed for it, as it was a time of war, and that is a typically acceptable punishment for treason in most countries. However, Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov are two Old Bolsheviks who outlived Stalin, and even in the face of Khrushchev's lies and murderous revisionist polices remain faithful to Stalin and the ideology of Marxism-Leninism until their deaths.

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, signed by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin in August 1939, was a bilateral agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It included a public pledge of non-aggression between the two countries, as well as a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. This pact enabled Hitler to invade Poland without the fear of a Soviet intervention, thus triggering the start of World War II.

He fully controlled the Soviet economy.

Stalin's emphasis on Russian patriotism did diverge from traditional Marxist views, which prioritize international solidarity among workers. His promotion of Russian nationalism at times went against the spirit of Marxist internationalism, leading to criticism from some Marxist thinkers.

Stalin adapted Marx's ideas by emphasizing the need for a strong, centralized state to achieve communist goals, which he believed required a dictatorship of the proletariat led by a vanguard party. He also implemented policies such as collectivization and industrialization to rapidly transform the Soviet Union into a powerful socialist state, focusing on building a strong military and promoting rapid industrial growth.

I'm not a specialist in this topic. However, I understand that the kulaks were the individuals who benefited from Lenin's New Economic Policy, during the mid-1920s. They were able to create farms with multiple machinery and animals (yes, I know...sinful...), and were regarded as better-off than the majority of the Russian peasantry (numbering about 82% at the time and suffering poverty and famine on a regular basis).

Stalin regarded this population as contrary to the communist ideal of egalitarianism and economic commonality. He therefore ordered their liquidation, so as to appease those of the peasantry who were jealous, display his unadulterated devotion towards communism, and implement his first Five Years Plan, which represented virtually complete state control over the Russian economy.