It is. You should read it.

Unless you think that anything less than a glowing account of Stalin in unacceptable, of course.

That’s fair.

As for the pluses, I’d list:

• Women’s rights
• Improvements in health care and social services
• Progress in education and the sciences
• Economic growth

This theory is pretty roundly discredited in academia, though. The consensus view is that while there was a drought that lasted several years, the starvation that occured was exacerbated by the policies set by the Politburo, including:

• Excessive quotas leading to the reduction in crop rotation and leaving land fallow, which in turn lead to weaker crop yields

• The fall in livestock numbers following forced collectivization

• Poor quality harvest resulting from an unsettled agriculture industry that resulted from political upheaval

So yes, nature itself was partly to blame but the refusal to deviate from the unrealistic goals set by the people in charge was the reason why the grain shortages and resulting famines were so much worse that they ought to have been.

Asked and answered: I cited the specific book that referenced it, among others.

For the record, I am more than capable of recognizing the positive aspects of the USSR - I just don’t like the simple-minded good vs bad binary thinking that often plagues these discussions.

The great purges removed undesirable elements from the CPSU.

Undesirable from Stalin’s point of view, certainly.

You can’t name a single ill action taken towards Soviet peasants.Stalin brought them nothing but benefits

Hoo, boy. I would advise you to research how many people died during forced collectivization and how much death was caused by the confiscation of grain by the NKVD and the Red Army before you start making statements like that.

Many biographers have cited it, including Simon Montefiore is his book The Red Tsar, which was very well researched and shows Stalin as multi-faceted and charismatic, albeit deeply flawed.

The idea that Stalin was brutal is ridiculous.

Um, have you ever read a book about the man? The Great Purges between 1936-1938 and his policies towards the Soviet peasantry are just two examples of his ruthlessness.