stalin was a figurehead

how was he not a dictator

stalin was certainly not a figurehead

he literally purged his rivals

@smiley You need to read some fucking history

Stalin's word was fucking law, how was he not a dictator

and gained power through blackmail and alliances

this is the most woke take on stalin wtf

because he didn't hold absolute power or control or absolute "anything" really
he had a single vote in the soviet congress
his decisions were outvoted many times
he tried to resign 4 times and they were all rejected by the congress

says who

let me get citations

"look guys i'm not in total control"

the new york times visited the soviet union at one point and praised their democratic process

okay okay

they kept up a front

was *Mao* a dictator?

Lego has apparently made Tim Pool after he's finally had enough.

doctator

shut up

new hat for the medic in tf2

Mao was the best dictator

Mao's word was literally gospel

killed more than 100 million chinks

gotta praise

even aside from deaths

he's probably up there as the person who fucked their own country the hardest

>pest policy

kek

The British historian Robert Service who specialized in Russian history wrote about this in his biography of Stalin:
```
On 27 December 1926, he [Stalin] wrote to Sovnarkom Chairman Alexei Rykov saying: ‘I ask you to release me from the post of Central Committee General Secretary. I affirm that I can no longer work at this post, that I’m in no condition to work any longer at this post.’ He made a similar attempt at resignation on 19 December 1927.
```

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIIh00ETbxA

>killing the farmers

We need another mao in china tbh

we need a pinochet in china

Stalin remarked on this later in 1927 in a speech [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1927/10/23.htm#1] at a meeting of the Central Committee:

```It is said that in that “will” Comrade Lenin suggested to the congress that in view of Stalin’s “rudeness” it should consider the question of putting another comrade in Stalin’s place as General Secretary. That is quite true.

Yes, comrades, I am rude to those who grossly and perfidiously wreck and split the Party. I have never concealed this and do not conceal it now. Perhaps some mildness is needed in the treatment of splitters, but I am a bad hand at that.

At the very first meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee after the Thirteenth Congress I asked the plenum of the Central Committee to release me from my duties as General Secretary. The congress itself discussed this question. It was discussed by each delegation separately, and all the delegations unanimously, including Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev, obliged Stalin to remain at his post.

What could I do? Desert my post? That is not in my nature; I have never deserted any post, and I have no right to do so, for that would be desertion. As I have already said before, I am not a free agent, and when the Party imposes an obligation upon me, I must obey.

A year later I again put in a request to the plenum to release me, but I was again obliged to remain at my post. What else could I do?```

literally mandatory to read his words. sounds dictatorial to me

This shit was in 1927

In a speech [http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1954-2/succession-to-stalin/succession-to-stalin-texts/stalin-on-enlarging-the-central-committee/] given by him to the Central Committee that mainly criticized Molotov for some of his decisions, he was interrupted near the end of the speech by someone from the floor.
```
VOICE FROM THE FLOOR – We need to elect comrade Stalin as the General Secretary of the CC CPSU and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

STALIN – No! I am asking that you relieve me of the two posts!

MALENKOV – coming to the tribune: Comrades! We should all unanimously ask comrade Stalin, our leader and our teacher, to be again the General Secretary of the CC CPSU.```

@BabaBooey I take it she's Polish?

that doesn't mean he isn't dictator