"Joseph Stalin is what we would call the gold standard of dictatorship. Obviously we are not talking about morality here. We are talking about accumulating and exercising power. If you are interested in power, where it comes from, how it works, and what are the consequences when someone exercises such power, then Stalin is your guy. There are very few people in his category. Hitler, Mao, snd that is about it. Hitler was in power for just twelve years. Stalin was in power for three decades. Mao was also in power for an etended peroid of time but didn't have the military industural power complex "super power" that Stalin built. So Stalin really stands out, even in his peers."
- Stephen Kotkin, author
of Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
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