Stalin created what may be the world's best example of an utterly represive and
totalitarian police state: emulated today only by
North Korea. Stalin created a
cult of personality around himself and influenced life in the
Soviet Union to a remarkable degree. Eventually, his policies, which included
collectivization of land and
five year plans designed to boost industry and which led to untold suffering, were condemned by
Nikita Khrushchev at the
20th Congress of Soviet Communists in 1956 - probably the high point of his career. The legacy of Stalin's brutality was addressed in one way or another in Januar 2003 when the
Russian Parliament passed a bill granting Stalin's victims and their children compensation. The bill granted each victim 92 roubles (About US$2.90) a month, one free train ride per year, half price medicine, and free false teeth - hardly ample recompense for having been sent to a
gulag, but better than nothing, I suppose.
Source: www.economist.com May 26, 2003