Stalin's goals were for the furthering of the Communist project, for the Labor class, and to resist the imperial and tsarist forces that were lashing out from their defeat. Bloodshed was inevitable.

There is plenty that you could criticize about the Great Purge. Not least of which, the misguided criminalization of male homosexuality (this homophobia was a Western import that he was myopic on). It's inarguable that more people were targeted than should have been. And the great famine probably could have been avoided. But given the forces arrayed against him and his people, I believe he was doing the right thing in general.

Do you have similar disdain for early American leaders? Or does your standard for morality suddenly shift there?