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What's the deal with Stalin?
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As always,
has a lot of great, succinct views on Stalin in Blackshirts and Reds. There are a bunch of free PDF links if you google for them. These are not all rosy -- he has at least one whole chapter critiquing the USSR from a leftist perspective, and he acknowledges that under Stalin the USSR committed some crimes of state -- but overall the conclusion he reaches is justifiably positive on balance.
Another good (but longer) source on Stalin is Domenico Losurdo's Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend.
I should reread those chapters of B&R, I just read it recently. My copy was missing a couple of pages though, I should fix that. I'll look up your other suggestion too.