Stalin did not betray Lenin's ideals

Thank you comrade! One of the most well known slogans associated with Bolshevism and Leninism is this- "Peace, Bread and Land". As I'm sure you're aware Lenin promised the Russian people these three things. I'm sure you'll also agree that "Peace, Bread and Land" just about sums up what Lenin was looking to do with hthe country, and so is a decent indicator as to his "ideals". So then, did Stalin deliver peace, bread and land to the Soviet people? Giving context to the need of peace in early 20th century Russia, we need to look at Russia's involvement in World War One- in short it was abysmal. Combat losses were reported to be in excess of 2 and a half million, with casualties even higher. Slightly less than half a million civilians were killed. Millions of roubles of damage was done, crippling an already divided and economically weak nation. Industrially, Russia was miles behind Germany, and the only reason it was able to come out of the war at all was due to sheer weight of numbers. http://historyofrussia.org... Under Stalin in World War Two combat deaths increased by a factor of five. Between 7 million and 12 million civilians were killed by enemy action. Billions of roubles of damage was done. Of course I am not saying that Stalin caused WW2 nor was responsible in some way for it, however it is true that he presided over the slaughter, and saw it in the worst light. Lenin was in a similar situation during his rise to power, and in my opinion learned that the Russian people had no appetite for war, and as such strived in the future not to get his USSR into any other conflicts. Stalin did not do this- despite the larger scale of the slaughter in WW2- he got the USSR into a number of conflicts- the Korean War (causing a spike in defence spending, diverting resources from rebuilding after WW2, and the sending of 26,000 Soviet soldiers/military advisors to Korea) and various skirmishes with the west, which whilst not committing the Soviet Union into war were certainly aggressive acts and could hardly be called peaceful and diplomatic- namely the Berlin Blockade (http://www.johndclare.net...). Source for statistics- www.wikipedia.com During World War Two itself, Stalin organized one of the largest wartime spying operations against an ally in history- targeted, but not limited to, to investigate the Manhattan Project, enabling him to double and even triple check information given to him by other spies or the US government itself. According to my A2 history textbook 300+ "spies" sent information to Stalin from the US. This covert, but clearly aggressive and paranoid behaviour doesn't fit well with Lenin's idea of "peace", especially with reference to the war weary Soviet people. Bread- admittedly Stalin extensively modernised Russia"s agricultural sector, mainly through government subsidies on machinery and fertilisers, and the combination of land into "collectives". During WW2, however, Russia suffered from severe food shortages, and its citizens "enjoyed" the lowest calorific consumption during the war of any combatant nation- ""and the food ration of the average Soviet citizen was lowest" (Source-http://forum.axishistory.com...) Again, Russia"s difficulty during WW2 cannot be solely attributed to Stalin (however, he could have learned from the need for very tight rationing during the war that a change of tact was needed for Russia's agricultural sector, as enough food was simply not being produced). As this source shows things weren't exactly great afterwards; "Agriculture also suffered from government neglect. In 1952, for example, farmers produced less per acre than they had in 1913, years before the Russian Revolution and the introduction of mechanized agriculture. Not giant communal farmlands but postage-stamp-sized household plots " family gardens grudgingly allowed by the government in response to famine " fed virtually the entire country during the late Stalin era. The hardship and breakdown of the post-war period led to an increase in crime. As the Soviet regime proved itself unable to provide for its citizens" most basic needs, the very act of survival came to entail breaking with the regime and certain of its rules. Virtually all families engaged in black market transactions. Many stole extra supplies from their workplace, to exchange surreptitiously for deficit goods. Such actions were not without considerable risk. In 1947 " the same year that wartime rationing was lifted and prices soared " the Stalinist dictatorship imposed strict laws against the stealing of state and private property. At least two million citizens fell victim to new mandatory sentencing laws, which required seven to 25 years" imprisonment for even the most insignificant theft." Source- http://www.lsrhs.net... (Not to mention all the famines caused by Stalin"s uncompromising nature regarding collectivisation) And Land? Well, Stalin took much of the land of the peasants and placed in communal control (through collectivisation as mentioned earlier) and fulfilled Lenin"s claim of redistributing the land of the church, the nobility and the crown. Whether or not this was a good choice is open to debate, but it does show to be one area in which Stalin lived up to Lenin"s ideals. Finally let me end on Lenin"s own views regarded this "man of steel"- "Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution" And "Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Staling from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc." Source- Lenin"s Testament 1922 from http://www.historyguide.org...