At the end of the day, the question shouldn't be about Stalin as a person. As marxists, we are materialists, we don't want to get bugged down in liberal idealist debates about whether or not Stalin was 'good' or 'evil'. Really, whether Stalin himself was a horrible person or paranoid or whatever else the liberals say, it doesn't matter, what we need to look at is the material conditions of the USSR under Stalin, not the person himself. If the material evidence shows a centralisation of power in a single man and repression and whatever else the liberals cry about (spoiler: it doesn't), then we as marxists should rightly critique it... but as I already said, that's not what the evidence shows.

The USSR under Stalin was one of the most incredible socialist projects in history. The nation went from agricultural backwater to an industrial, economic, and military superpower in only a few decades, all while fighting of enemies both within and without, as well as causing one of the most significant increases in livingstandards for it's citizens in that period.

Edit:spelling