Was Joseph Stalin liberal or conservative?

Answer 1

Stalin was a far-left communist by today's standards, his party was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The government was secular to the point of atheistic, and openly persecuted those who held religious beliefs. There were mass purges to kill those who held belief in God, and the Soviet Union under Stalin began with the USSR Anti-Religious Campaign of 1928-41 designed to spread atheism and stamp out Christianity. Communism under Stalin abandoned what market-based reforms had been implemented under Lenin in favor of a government takeover of all industry. The defining influence for all of this was the secular thinking originating from Germany for the past century, see Karl Marx, G.W.F. Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Kautsky, Herbert Marcuse, Baron d'Holbach, etc.

The Soviet Union was intended as an extremely liberal communist state, where all citizens would share equal power and ownership over the nation, but that all changed when Stalin took power. Stalin was INSANE; a clinical sociopath with a level of paranoia exceeding post 9/11 New York. His lust for power and instability were so well known that Lenin said in the first drafts of his will that Stalin should NEVER be allowed to take power. Unfortunately Stalin was a much better politician than his rival, Trotskey, and forces Lenin to endorse him. As soon as he took power, Stalin began routing all the reigns of power through his office, reducing the party congress to a more symbolic role. By 1940, Stalin was an absolute dictator.

Stalinism is what happens when a bloodthirsty lunatic gains control over a communist nation.

Answer 2

He used ideals from both sides. He believed in universal health care, and strong government control like liberals but he also believed in a strong military and hated labor unions like conservatives. Also, Hitler used religion to help his cause and more conservatives are religious than liberals.