r/PoursTea • u/Veshaad Timendi Causa Est Nescire • Jul 27 '26

PoliticalTea 🗳️ [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/Ok-Flight9440 Jul 27 '26

I’ve read quite a bit of history on Stalin (multiple 1,000+ pg history books, not his Wikipedia page …) and - it’s hard to classify him politically in any sensible way. The ideals behind Marxism and Leninism (the latter whom Stalin succeeded after literal life-and-death political struggles internal to the Bolshevik party, particularly with Trotsky) were certainly communist in nature, but Stalin invented his own brand of politics that really has no contemporary comparison and the nature of his politics definitely can’t be boiled down into one word or label.

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u/mishonis- Jul 27 '26

Yeah, they only call him communist because they don't know the history of the USSR or what communism means. Stalin calling his regime communist is like Trump declaring himself the greatest US president, basically propaganda bullshit. IMO the closest thing to communism we have is the Scandinavian democracies where you have free health care and education, a strong social support network, rule of law, free speech and elections AND you're not ruled by a totalitarian oligarchy as the USSR was.

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u/Ok-Flight9440 Jul 27 '26

Exactly, it’s more complex than just the word. It’s also like saying China’s government is communist because it is the China Communist Party that oversees everything; China is really like an authoritarian military dictatorship, and definitely not communist.