Best Leader of the Soviet Union

[Хahar 🤔]

Gorbachev.

I'm probably the only Gorbachevist on this forum. But his revisionism did (and does) appeal to me greatly. What he had approached social democracy, unlike all the other rulers, who were statists above all.

Khrushchev was quite a fellow, as his memoirs reveal.

[Хahar 🤔]

Gorbachev.

I'm probably the only Gorbachevist on this forum. But his revisionism did (and does) appeal to me greatly. What he had approached social democracy, unlike all the other rulers, who were statists above all.

Khrushchev was quite a fellow, as his memoirs reveal.

Yes, it's a good philosophy on principle. The problem is, he was 15 years late.

You can't fault him for that, though. Andropov could've been a great leader had he lived. And Brezhnev would have been great had he remained the same person Khrushchev liked so much.

The only leader who came into the office with no potential whatsoever was Chernenko.

[Хahar 🤔]

     I like how three people voted Khrushchev. Is there any redeeming features about him that I'm forgetting? I associate him with the Berlin Ultimatum & the Cuban Missile Crisis, which were not the USSR's finest hours.

You look from a typical blind western perspective. He did a lot of good things (the Secret Speech is one, as was the liquidization of Beria). As a protégé of Stalin, he was still an old-school Marxist, but he was the best one tere was.

[Хahar 🤔]

So, as expected, the Russians don't have positive feelings about Stalin, but it's surprising that the rule of a bumbling fool was so well thought of.

Considering all Russian leaders were bumbling fools, that really can't be used as part of the equation.

No, Lenin, Stalin and Andropov were very smart (and Putin is today). Unfortunately Stalin was a murderous maniac, Andropov died too soon and Lenin died too soon and and had poor people skills.

Stalin lost his touch after the mid-1930s, I think. The Great Purges crippled Russia militarily, and the war was nearly lost due to his paranoia.

[Хahar 🤔]

Ah, but Malenkov never had any real power.