Russian chemical attack on UK

During an argument with his wayward son, Yakov, in about 1941, Stalin is heard to have shouted, “I am not Stalin !! Stalin is Socialist Power !!! “

If you want to contrast Hitler and Stalin, you have to first understand both men. There are entire books on the subject. Generally, before the fall of Communism (and the subsequent emergence of new sources of information) the details were pretty much obfuscated and Stalin was roughly equated to being like Hitler, based on an inane tally of how many citizens both totalitarian regimes killed.

Stalin is somewhat revered in Russia amongst the older generation and in some areas, notably Georgia (Stalin was originally from a small town in Russia called Gori.) Russia has always historically been a huge country, split into individual fiefdoms ruled over by corrupt local panjandrums and the key to ruling Russia – I say “ruling” as the emancipation of peasants in Russia came in in the 1870’s – has been always perceived as having a strong leader who could rule one Russia from a capital, be it Kiev or Moscow, historically.

Russians tend to look back to Ivan IV (“The terrible”) as the first Russian ruler to do this. Ivan was categorically not a pleasant fellow. When the town of Novgorod was rumoured to be about to defect to enemy powers in 1570, Ivan had the inhabitants massacred. Some were strapped to huge rafts and pushed into the frozen river. The information about the massacre came from Ivan’s secret police force – the oprichniki – essentially a private army there to spy on potential rebellion.

Stalin, in the late 30’s, essentially models himself on Ivan IV. He is a man with very little individual personality, when you examine him. Unlike the Nazi regime, he relies on a secret army of informers and ruthlessness. He sees treachery and treason all around. Enemies are silenced, brutally. Just as one distinguishing factor, in some major cities, the Nazi had less than 20 members of the Gestapo to police and entire city, and, in some cases, even French provinces. Whilst it can’t be disguised that both Stalin and Hitler were dictators, they were extremely different in nature and the totalitarian states they created differed in many ways. This is just a brief example.

Vladimir Putin is just following the centuries old Russian traditions, to be honest. The modern version of the oprichniki still exist, there are still many enemies, real and imagined, to be discovered, both internally and externally, and, as in any country with so much Borgias like intrigue, Borgias like methods are used to eliminate “opponents”, be they journalists or dissidents or spies.