u/Inevitable-Shake8488 - originally from r/GenZhou
Deng on Stalin:
We think that Stalin's merits and contributions to the revolution exceed his mistakes. Using our Chinese habit, the grades for Stalin are 30 percent for his mistakes and 70 percent for his merits. Also Chairman Mao used to say so and, after the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party expressed a very clear evaluation of Stalin. In fact, we said that we would always regard Stalin's works as classical works in the international communist movement. You know, we are also aware of the mistakes committed by Stalin toward the Chinese revolution. When, after the Second World War, there was a rupture between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang and we engaged in the liberation of war, Stalin was against us. Yet, not even this ever changed our views of him.
Source from this interview
Castro on Stalin:
Q: Fidel, for most Latin American revolutionary leaders, the current crisis of socialism has a mastermind: Josef Stalin.
A: I believe Stalin made big mistakes but also showed great wisdom.
In my opinion, blaming Stalin for everything that occurred in the Soviet Union would be historical simplism, because no man by himself could have created certain conditions. It would be the same as giving Stalin all the credit for what the USSR once was. That is impossible! I believe that the efforts of millions and millions of heroic people contributed to the USSR's development and to its relevant role in the world in favor of hundreds of millions of people.
I have criticized Stalin for a lot of things. First of all, I criticized his violation of the legal framework.
I believe Stalin committed an enormous abuse of power. That is another conviction I have always had.
I feel that Stalin's agricultural policy did not develop a progressive process to socialize land. In my opinion, the land socialization process should have begun earlier and should have been gradually implemented. Because of its violent implementation, it had a very high economic and human cost in a very brief period of history.
I also feel that Stalin's policy prior to the war was totally erroneous. No one can deny that western powers promoted Hitler until he became a monster, a real threat. The terrible weakness shown by western powers before Hitler cannot be denied. This at encouraged Hitler's expansionism and Stalin's fear, which led Stalin to do something I will criticize all my life, because I believe that it was a flagrant violation of principles: seek peace with Hitler at any cost, stalling for time.
During our revolutionary life, during the relatively long history of the Cuban Revolution, we have never negotiated a single principle to gain time, or to obtain any practical advantage. Stalin fell for the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact at a time when Germans were already demanding the delivery of the Danzig Corridor.
I feel that, far from gaining time, the nonaggression pact reduced time, because the war broke out anyway. Then, in my opinion, he made another big mistake, because when Poland was being attacked, he sent troops to occupy that territory, which was disputed because it had a Ukrainian or Russian population, I am not sure.
I also believe that the little war against Finland was another terrible mistake, from the standpoint of principles and international law.
Stalin made a series of mistakes that were criticized by a large part of the world, and which placed Communists - who were great friends of the USSR - in a very difficult position by having to support each one of those episodes.
Since we are discussing this topic, I must tell you that I have never discussed it with any journalist (or on any other occasion, he added).
The things I mentioned are against principles and doctrine; they are even contrary to political wisdom. Although it is true that there was a period of one year and nine months from September 1939 to June 1941 during which the USSR could have rearmed itself, Hitler was the one who got stronger.
If Hitler had declared war on the USSR in 1939, the destruction would have been less than the destruction caused in 1941, and he would have suffered the same fate as Napoleon Bonaparte. With the people's participation in an irregular war, the USSR would have defeated Hitler.
Finally, Stalin's character, his terrible distrust of everything, made him commit several other mistakes: one of them was falling in the trap of German intrigue and conducting a terrible, bloody purge of the armed forces and practically beheading the Soviet Army on the eve of war.
Q: What do you believe were Stalin's merits?
A: He established unity in the Soviet Union. He consolidated what Lenin had begun: party unity. He gave the international revolutionary movement a new impetus. The USSR's industrialization was one of Stalin's wisest actions, and I believe it was a determining factor in the USSR's capacity to resist.
One of Stalin's - and the team that supported him - greatest merits was the plan to transfer the war industry and main strategic industries to Siberia and deep into Soviet territory.
I believe Stalin led the USSR well during the war. According to many generals, Zhukov and the most brilliant Soviet generals, Stalin played an important role in defending the USSR and in the war against Nazism. They all recognized it.
I think there should be an impartial analysis of Stalin. Blaming him for everything that happened would be historical simplism.
Source from this interview.