Given that this community has generally positive view of Stalin, I’m curious what he did that my comrades find irredeemable or out of line. Since it’s easy to criticize the Soviet Union from a western perspective, bonus points if you explain how this was detrimental to the development of socialism and/or communism.
He sold out the Greek communists to the British.
That cost Greece a 4 year civil war and 30 years of repression and dictatorship, followed by neoliberal governments till now.
It also caused a far-right coup in Cyprus down the line, which gave the chance for Turkey to invade it and still hold half the island under occupation.
Greece and Cyprus were both on the way to becoming socialist.
That happened due to Tito-Stalin fight, Yugoslavia supported Greeks in civil war along with USSR, but when they got into conflict, the support ended and Greece lost. They are both equally to blame for that.
I think it’s important to point out, the USSR was very scared about the US having nukes. Their foreign policy was to appease the US to avoid being nuked by them. They also had a complicated relationship with the communist guerilla movement in China, exactly because of this.
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That and the war hawks were itching badly to nuke China so why not the USSR too?
I don’t disagree with that assesment. However, let’s not forget he made that agreement with Churchill 6 months before the US bombed Japan (the infamous Percentages Agreement). He could have at least tried to talk with the rest of the Allies about it.