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submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by sadschmuck@hexbear.net to c/history@hexbear.net

No.

According to a claim circulating online, there is a CIA document or internal communication from the 1950s asserting that Joseph Stalin was not a dictator. The existence of this document is cited as proof either that Stalin was not a dictator after all, or at least that even the CIA didn't think he was. However, looking at the document in question, we see it is not a pronouncement of fact by the CIA whatsoever, but an anecdotal information report submitted to CIA information gatherers. As such, the document is a primary source representing the perspective of one anonymous informant, not the opinion of the CIA as a whole. Additionally, the document is contradicted by dozens of more reliable or detailed documents obtained or created by the CIA in the same period, indicating that they did not believe Stalin was non-dictatorial as claimed.

The transcript is in the comments.

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[-] purpleworm@hexbear.net 2 points 7 months ago

You're right, I've been owned. I honestly find it pretty surprising that they believe he was an autocrat, not because of the note but because it's a silly idea that isn't true even of military dictators or kings.

Looking at the transcription that was helpfully written, I think our friend does overcorrect on a trivial point when looking at the text itself, because the text really does say that Stalin, while being very powerful, still was part of a larger body. The author does not say that he has "near-absolute" power like our friend says it does. I don't even understand why they make this argument when they already made a perfectly solid argument to discard this evidence as worthless, and it just makes their claim look weaker rhetorically.

this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
52 points (98.1% liked)

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