Petty criminals in some cases. Potentially some who were starving and stole to eat. Do societies run in the interests of working people punish those people for struggling or focus on rehabilitation where it is possible? Push them into force work camps where a very significant number die. Is trying to eat a death penalty now?

Stalin ain’t that saint you think he was.

Was Trotsky working against the USSR? He was actively involved under Lenin, but when Stalin wanted to grasp power, he became a problem. Do you think Lenin was wrong and Stalin was right?

It feels very much like you’re in a Stalin shaped cult of personality, which is ultimately was what his rule of the USSR was, not some glory day communist rule poster child. If you really want to persuade people that communism is better. Evangelising a dictator isn’t going to help the case of furthering Marxist philosophy.