Maverick: Boroda's not the only one Miko admires him as a consumate politician. 
"Admire" is not the right word to use here, especially "admire
him". I
recognise that he was an extremely capable politician.
You could stretch it to saying that I admire his political acumen like I would admire a singer's vocal abilities or weightlifter's strength. But it's a long way from recognising a
person's abilities to admiring
a person, which necessarily involves a value judgement of person's goals and ideas.
I've studied Stalin's assent to power quite thoughroughly. The most common feature one would notice in all his political opponents - the people commonly recognised as brilliant thinkers - was underappreciation of Stalin's intellect.
banana: I didn't know that Lenin had instructed the party to oust Stalin and make Trotsky the party leader. When Lenin was doing that, Stalin was already holding the bulk of real power and carefully balanced the opposing groups to account for the rest - untill he made them weaken and defeat each other.
Whatever Stalin was, Trotsky would have been worse. His version of military communism, labor armies, permanent revolution, etc. made Stalin's actions look mild.
Same goes for Bukharin and company.
There were no good people among bolshevic's elite, not a single one. All were either power-mad idealists or common criminals.
Chairboy: ...he had advisors urgently warning him about german forces...
Ripsnort: Distrusted his own people, but trusted other countries Gov'ts. So either he was incredibly stupid or the way it is explained was not what really hapenned.
Wake up, guys - the history did not end. We are still living it. When you hear anything about past history, whatever you hear may still contain lies - especially if you are told what you like to hear.
miko
