In considering Stalin's atrocities, it is necessary to find out what was Russia, what was Communism and what was Stalin.

Russia had a strong authoritarian streak both before and after Stalin. Stalin was only the most extreme example of something that has always been there.

Communism advocated slaughters of propertied class, and there were atrocities in all Communist countries.

And then there was the brutal, ruthless, paranoid Stalin.

Either one of these three would be bad enough; but being hit will all of the above must have been horrible. The people who lived through Stalin must have been extraordinarily strong. And even among those who did not survive, many were strong enough.

My grandmother was one such person, and she was a very strong-minded woman. Unfortunately she derived her strength from Communism, and she wasn't nice to my mother, who also was a strong-minded woman and wanted to go to United States. Her generation has reputation for heavy-handedness, which cuts across countries. The same character traits existed under a number of systems, and they clashed especially with their children, whose own traits also found ways to exist under a number of systems.

With Stalin, we see an extreme example of something that was a global trend at the time. There were many authoritarian leaders in 1930s and 1940s, even in America. It was worst in Soviet Union because they were hit with a triple whammy of Stalin, Communism and Russian authoritarianism. But many other people experienced similar things at the time, and it shaped the way they approached life.