Cromwell slaughtered untold numbers of Irish and sold countless numbers into slavery so, yeah, I’d rank him with Stalin.
Cromwell killed many of my family, forced them to leave Ireland—I have no love for the dictator. BUT I don’t think you can rank him with Stalin—who killed Millions of people.
I wont try and justify what Cromwell did, although I will point out that the Irish then and now exaggerate the death toll of 1649-50, and indentured servitude of prisoners of war was commonplace in Europe. Cromwell also took masses of Scottish Royalists as ‘slaves’. Ironically his army was not English, but an amalgam of English, Welsh and Ulster Scots, perhaps even a few Scots.
I would also remind people that any Cromwellian hate had its roots in the famous 1641 uprising, where the Irish Catholics slaughtered thousands of Protestant English and Scottish settlers, inc women and children.
Cromwell had my ancestor, a well known Anglican clergyman beheaded for treason. He had been chaplain to the King and after the King’s execution dared to pray “for one known to us but across the sea” Although unnamed in the prayer it was assumed go be Charles I son, Charles II. Cromwell isn’t popular in our family.