Opinions of Stalin

In 1956, three years after Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech stating that:

'He killed thousands of Communists. He was changeable, irritable and brutal, a very distrustful man, diseased with suspicion. His rule was one of torture and oppression.'

Nikita Khrushchev

That year, when it was finally ok to say what you felt about Stalin, the German writer Klaus Menhert went around asking people what they felt about Stalin. This is what four of them said:

• "The blood-sucker! Just think of the number of people whose lives he ruined."
• "Who won the war for us? Who raised Russia from a backward country to the most powerful state in the world?"
• "Of course, some bad things happened under his rule, but there were a hell of a lot more good things."
• "He murdered the best of our people because he was determined to be the sole boss."