“The lengths Stalin went to drive his armies is beyond anything I have ever read, his brutality makes Hitler and Mao look almost normal.”
You seem to miss that the left also overlooks what Mao did. He was just has brutal as Stalin. What is the coincidence? Stalin and Mao were both communists. For that, they get a pass. Yet, Hitler was a Nazi. And he is the one that gets all the blame today. It’s a compliment to be called a Communist today, and a major insult to be called a Nazi.
That purge in 1938 had a lot to do with, that put the fear into the Generals and probably in the end saved Stalin's neck.
And there's the rub. Communists never use the term "Nazi", which stands for "National Socialist", they will always use "Fascist". Even thought Mussolini was the only Fascist, and the Nazi form of government bore little resemblance to Mussolini's Italy.
Mao indeed was a brutal overlord, my comments were about what Stalin did to his own army to make them fight. Read Max Hasting’s book Armageddon , it was brutal.