Well it’s interesting to note that if anything, Stalin was closer to Hitler than to Lenin.
Lenin wanted to reduce the influence of Russian Nationalism on the Soviet Union, and wanted the focus of the Soviet Union to be on spreading Communism worldwide.
Stalin, wanted “Socialism in One Country”, and implemented “Russification” across the Soviet Union, and ethnically cleansed entire regions and replacing them with ethnic Russians.
It’s interesting how Stalin had it both ways. As his NKVD goons were hounding Jews in the Soviet Union, his propagandists were portraying the convicted atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as victims of anti-Semitism.
Lenin encouraged ethnic tensions and seccesionism for the very same reason leftists in US are fueling BLM and alikes. Divide and conquer. And he was a German spy on top of that. Restoration of Polish sovereignty, seccession of Finland and Baltic states weren’t bad at all but it was exactly what Germans wanted in WWI.