DBWI: Stalinist USSR

Just before Lenin's death during the 12th Party Congress, Lenin denounced Stalin pretty harshly and called him rude, disloyal, selfish, ambitious, and recommended his immediate dismissal. When Lenin died not long after, Stalin was accused of poisoning him and chased out of the USSR.

But what if Lenin had not been so harsh in his letter? Could Stalin have come to power? And what would his Soviet Union would've looked like, if he was as nasty as Lenin claimed?
 
Can you really call Stalinism an ideology? The books Stalin wrote while exiled in Spain are really more just complaining about Tukhachevsky's rule than any substantial policy recommendations.
 
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Can you really can Stalinism an ideology? The books Stalin wrote while exiled in Spain are really more just complaining about Tukhachevsky's rule than any substantial policy recommendations.

The Revolution Betrayed is pretty interesting. His analysis on Tukhachevsky's "Imperial Workers' State" is pretty spot on.
 
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The Revolution Betrayed is pretty interesting. His analysis on Tukhachevsky's "Imperial Workers' State" is pretty spot on.
I mean, like stated above, there really isn't much to it aside from opposing Tukhachevsky and vague nationalism.

I don't know how he could've survived a power struggle like the one that lead to Tukhachensky's rise, or how he might've governed, given his purported paranoia.
 
Prior to the formation of the USSR, Stalin advocated joining Ukraine, Byelorussia and Transcaucasia as autonomous areas of the RSFSR. Under Stalin, I could see the Soviet government becoming more centralized. He also opposed the korenizatsiya programs in exile, and advocated some vague Russian nationalism.

Would there be any collectivization of agriculture under Stalin? How would industry develop?
 

Md139115

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I mean, like stated above, there really isn't much to it aside from opposing Tukhachevsky and vague nationalism.

I don't know how he could've survived a power struggle like the one that lead to Tukhachensky's rise, or how he might've governed, given his purported paranoia.

I don’t know. The paranoid man usually does best in power struggles.

And I think that his nationalism is something that would have appealed to the Politiburo at the...(dodges rotten fruit) HEAR ME OUT! The Red armies were spent after fighting the Civil War then trying to conquer Europe. An ideology that focused inwardly until Russia had rebuilt itself would probably be quite tempting!
 
It just came to me, without such an active foreign policy, Germany might not have gone Red.
 
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