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

To me, it seems like it's still a good piece of agitprop in the beginning, but as communism, anarchism, socialism become more popular and people become more generally knowledgeable about them, then the counter arguments will start to become more sophisticated (like the arguments about the communists stabbing the anarchists in the back during the Russian Revolution or Spanish Civil War). That's when it doesn't look great when you peddle this argument and you get countered without any more to say because you never had to say more than that lol.

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

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