Too much aproximate indeed is the present understanding of the decision-making processes and strategies that gave support to the rise of the Soviet power under the leadership of Stalin, an insurmountable legacy almost to the end. Many archive sources are still out of reach, an essential part of Stalin's personal letters to begin with. However, to insist on decision making may be a mistake, because the problem seems wider: the difficulty of achieving an interpretative synthesis and historiographical consensus about the deep motivations underlying the imperial perspective and policies, the cultural and ideological elements of Stalin's strategies and their own motivations and objectives. This article is a reflection on that difficulty.
The Soviet empire; The Soviet State; Stalin and stalinism; Ideology