alright before i write this, its a semi-long read but its pretty interesting.
The numbers are staggering.
Stalin was a far worse killer of humanity than Hitler.
His career was one long record of brutality and murder starting in the 1920's. His efforts to destroy private farms in Ukraine led to millions starving to death. Millions more died in various industrialization projects that were built using slave labor, labor that was worked to death in extreme climates.
Stalin instigated wars with Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, and Lithuania - all by 1940. All were bloody affairs with civilian and military alike being slaughtered. Prior to this he had fought a short war with Japan over border issues in north China. He lent major support to communist movements throughout the world, but most effectively in China. This led to constant conflict between the rebel communist groups and the legitimate, Nationalist, government of that country.
During WWII he encouraged tactics which led to the deaths of about 8,000,000 of his own soldiers. Additionally about 2,800,000 German/Hungarian/Romanian/Finnish troops were killed by his armies. His scorched earth policy meant starvation for millions of his own people overrun by the German invasion. Stalin's policies meant to mercy to prisoners and huge numbers died after being taken captive during the war. Perhaps 30,000,000 persons of various nations died because of Stalin just during WWII.
Following WWII, Stalin instigated a policy of terror on the German people. This led to about 2,000,000 German civilians being murdered outright and thousands more commiting suicide. Additionally Stalin enforced brutal police states on all the peoples of eastern Europe which he overran with his armies. Tens of thousands died in these takeovers. German POWs were kept in horrible conditions for as long as ten years after the war, leading to the deaths of at least 1,000,000.
As the war in Europe wound down in 1945, he launched an unprovoked war with Japan, killing many tens of thousands of Japanese troops and capturing many others that were brutally treating in POW camps. Arms captured from the Japanese were then turned over to Stalin's communist allies among the Chinese people.
These Chinese, thus well armed, quickly routed the legitimate government forces in that country and placed a terrorist criminal gang in charge, led by Mao. Mao then used his Stalin backed power to instigate his own slaughter of the Chinese, leading to perhaps 30,000,000 dead from all causes.
Stalin also armed the north Koreans and pressed them into a war with the western nations. This led to the deaths of perhaps 1,000,000 Koreans, 50,000 Americans, and 100,000 or so Chinese.
Meanwhile in the USSR, Stalin's concentration camps were crammed with millions of inmates, who died by the thousands from overwork, exhaustion, starvation, scurvy, shooting, beatings, and disease.
Compared to Stalin, Hitler was an amatuer at murder and slaughter. However, by winning WWII, Stalin has been largely ignored in the history books as the astonishingly prolific killer that he was.
