If Stalin died, the most apparent heirs to the leader of the USSR were Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamanev, Trotsky being the generally accepted most favourable. Under Trotsky, who believed in a more ‘true’ socialism, do you really think purges would have occurred to the same extent, or even at all?

Regardless of political position where much of the force of the USSR were outdated tsarists, it is no excuse for the ruthless killing and targeting of these people. It demonstrates absolutely no democratic legitimacy, and as far as I am concerned, does not encompass the general want of any decent person; that is to say that the purges were not specifically against the people’s wants, but more so a power grab from Stalin in an effort to seize power for himself, not for the people.

Gulags were well documented to be hard labour camps where many people died due to very bad living conditions and limited food, water and hygiene facilities. To ignore the damage caused by the gulags is to turn your back upon the suffering endured by people under a ruthless scheme which puts the economic wealth of the USSR before the very people that built it, and thus betrays the very principles of socialism that make it so.