LogFAQs > #975717905

industrialization made the soviets able to hold out against the nazis in ww2. certainly they could have industrialized without the millions of deaths caused by the stalinist policy, but his lack of concern about the civilians dying before and during the war made rapid industrialization and the wartime industry move faster than it would have in a non totalitarian state. i think if lenin or trotsky had been at the helm during all of the 20s-ww2 the soviets would have probably lost. neither were nearly as capable as stalin and both were also brutal authoritarian leaders that didn't mind murdering scores of people.