The warrior state that defeated the invasion of the united West survived its Supreme Commander-in-Chief for only 38 years—a tiny span by historical standards. Stalin didn’t have time to build the realm’s sacred temple. As it turned out, too much depended on the role of a single person in history; without that, it rapidly grew old and collapsed.
And revolutionary Dzhugashvili turned into the red emperor—punishing those who denounced Russia, painstakingly recreating and multiplying the greatness and glory of the Soviet Empire, whose anthem began with the words: “The Great Russian land forged in unbreakable unity forever.”
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a nightmare for homegrown Russophobes and an enduring nightly nightmare for “our Western partners.”