We have a huge audience in Russia who now number nearly 50% of American readers. Germans often point out that Hitler came from Austria. Likewise, to be absolutely accurate, Stalin was not Russian. Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili on the 18th of December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia.
As part of the Communist Revolution, Stalin first went after the rich. There was the New Economic Policy (NEP) in which Stalin went after the wealthiest soviet people (Nepmans and Kulaks) to rob them as an instant source of money and land to rebuild country to be ready for new war with Brit or Nazi.
Later Stalin simply killed people for fear of what they thought. In East Germany, there too the government instructed children the state was their savior and if their parents talked against the government then they should report them to the state.
The Russian people were suppressed, abused, and murdered by their own government. We all must be diligent to note that our differences are between governments. At the human level, the people are always the victims of their own government. In the Cycles of War, I point out that the American people were isolationists. Roosevelt had to go to Boston and pledge to the people their sons would never be sent to Europe to fight. For you see, the Europeans who fled here (including Russians) were fleeing from abusive governments for one reason or another. Boston was predominantly Irish who fled here from the British. In their mind, they would not go then fight to defend Britain.
The US government lied to start every war. It was interesting that Obama was so casual in assuming he could lie to invade Syria. He at last encountered Americans saying enough was enough with this bullshit.