With regards to Stalin's cult being too ingrained in '40, that's incredibly iffy. A good number of Soviet citizens (possibly a majority, definitely the peasantry) actually hated the guy with a passion.
Once the War started, however, and Soviet citizens began to see the horrors that Nazi rule would bring, they very quickly rallied around Stalin. It was the War and the nationalism that Stalin came to embrace and (rightly or wrongly) embody that became the roots of his cult of personality. Prior to 1941, though, he and his cult (which, again, was mostly urban-based) are on much more unsteady ground.
I'm sorry I do not agree.
Stalin cult begun in '27, and in 40 had had a lot of time to brew.
Regarding soviets citizens hating him, I'm sorry it is not true, too.
Soviets citizens hated Beria (or Ezhov, or whatever), not stalin: they drew a difference between "Him" (Stalin) and "Them" (his subordinates), putting the blame on the latters.
"If only Stalin knew" was an idiomatical phrase repeated by many citizens, even by relatives of his victims (who often believed that the unexplained disappearance of their loved ones would soon be set right, if only they could get word to Stalin)