Joseph Stalin

Stalin’s historical reputation has waxed and waned perhaps more than anyone else’s. In the West he has been a foe in the 1930s, a friend and ally in the 1940s, and a foe again at the end of World War Two. At home he has been seen as both a tyrant and a national saviour; a tyrant in terms of how he repressed political dissent of any kind by imprisoning millions, and a national saviour in terms of defeating the Nazis and establish the USSR as a superpower.