4 ms·

Without Stalinism the USSR would have probably lost WW2, which in turn means Hitler would not have been defeated. Sad but true.

• s_q_b 12y ago
  Meh, who knows what would have happened. If the Russian Revolution had played out differently, Russia could have become a socialist country more like modern European states, still broken the back of the Germans on the Eastern front, helped defeat Hitler, and we might have had a half century of free trade and economic growth. Accurately evaluating alternative history is next to impossible.
  • warkid 12y ago
    "what would have happened" - suprising to see it here, in comments about a science-related article. The fact is that the most evil, biggest and thoughest army of all times was defeated(with enormous participation of the "western" allies, though). And still, it's kinda "doubtful" that Stalin was somewhat maybe a tiny bit good at commandment...
• avmich 12y ago
  Stalin purged so many military commanders it's doubtful USSR wouldn't have advantages in WW2 without Stalin. The war would likely be fought very differently - or not fought at all, as Hitler wouldn't be so careless with his Barbarossa plan.
  • mercurial 12y ago
    Just look at the performance of the Red Army in the Winter War for an example.
• mantas 12y ago
  If there was no Stalin, WW2 would have been totally different. Soviet Union helped Hitler a lot to rebuild Germany military power and prepare for WW2. In fact, they started WW2 as allies. Soviets were giving supplies to Germany till the moment Germans did U-turn and attacked USSR. Without Stalinism, were would probably be no need for WW2 at all. Or it would be a totally different event.
  • the_af 12y ago
    The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were allies only in the weakest sense, non-aggression. Each were buying time, and ultimately considered the other its enemy and knew a war would be fought sooner or later. Claiming that the Soviet Union was a major force in the re-arming and preparation of Nazi Germany is counterfactual at best. There are hundreds of studies on how and why Nazism rose in Germany, and none seriously posits that it was with the help of the Soviet Union (the aftermath of WWI, the treaty of Versailles, rising discontent and anti-semitism, are all part of the real motives). Because of the tenets of Nazism, the war in Europe would have been fought no matter what ("living space", "superiority of the Aryan race", "final solution of the Jewish question" and all that stuff). Without the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany wouldn't have had a major front in which their soldiers fought and died by the thousands, and it would have made the job of the Western Allies incredibly harder, if at all possible. If you want to assign blame to other countries, many businessmen in the Western world actually saw Hitler in a positive light, at least initially, since he was against unions and workers rights.