What's really really funny is if you are a Stalin nerd like me and you've read everything there is to read about Stalin and his rise to power some aspects of what we've seen unfolding before us over the last decade just seems so oddly familiar.

What Stalinism was about was the use of organized crime tactics that Stalin had used during the revolution and previously being brought into use in government. The thing that usually prevents this from happening in a normal situation is that the mob bosses get obsessed with material possessions, women and comforts and get distracted from running a government. In Stalin's case though he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had completely taken over the world in the name of Marxism/Leninism and that kept him focused throughout his political journey. It also didn't hurt that he had an enormous intellect and memory to keep the whole thing together. It's weird because it was all ideologically consistent and had probably seemed all practical and reasonable to the cadres. Simon Sebag-Montefiore explained this in his book "Court of the Red Tzar" as them thinking of themselves as "Warrior Priests". Molotov, a true believer himself, even complained that after Stalin the government became filled with opportunists and not revolutionaries.