Everything we're told about Stalin is wrong

What if Stalin wasn't the monster we've been told?

Joseph Stalin was an evil commie who killed tens of millions of people because something something communism something something.

That’s the official narrative.

Except that, well, official narratives are almost always either fabricated or an outright lie.

And if you argue that everything is a lie, then you need to be consistent.

I need to make it clear that this kind of podcast episode doesn’t mean I or my guest support communism or Stalin. I don’t know what or who my guest supports. It’s about finding out what’s true—no matter where the evidence leads. Ideology shouldn’t get in the way. Plus, if I’m going to question what I know about Hitler, contagion, 9/11, Jesus, and everything else, then I might as well stay consistent when it comes to Stalin—and even Mao.

That I feel the need to add the above disclaimer is a sad indictment of where we are today.

But here we are.

My podcast guest

Professor Grover Furr is an American academic known for his ‘controversial’ defence of Stalin and the Soviet Union, while also teaching Medieval English literature.

He has written a number of books on Stalin.

An important thing to understand is that most English-language books about Stalin, of which there are thousands, have been written from a Western perspective using similar and often overlapping sources.

Most English-language books on Stalin are indeed written from a Western perspective and frequently draw on overlapping or secondary sources rather than original Soviet archives. This creates a recycled narrative that reinforces established Cold War-era views. Scholars like Grover Furr have pointed out that few Western authors engage deeply with primary Russian documents, which limits the scope and challenges the accuracy of mainstream interpretations. As a result, alternative viewpoints based on untranslated Soviet materials often remain marginal in English-speaking discourse.

In other words, almost all English-language Stalin books rely on a narrow set of Western sources and perspectives repeating the same narrative.

Does it mean that everything Grover says is true?

No.

But it certainly means that not everything we’ve been told about Stalin is true.

Give it a listen

Here’s my UK Column conversation with Grover. Before knee-jerking, remove your ideological lens through which you view the world.

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