My take...
Fuentes is full of it. Putting aside the death tolls resulting from the collectivization/forced famines and purges, Stain's handling of World War Two was abyssmal. He dismissed early reports of the upcoming Operation Barbarossa (June 22 1941) leaving the Soviet Union under prepared for the six months of German victories that only came to a halt in January 1942 at Moscow. The Red Army suffered defeats at Smolensk, Minsk, Kiev, Vitobesk with Leningrad placed under a terrible siege that lasted three years. It was only after he gave more authority to generals such as Zhokov, Rokossovsky and Vasilevsky coupled with German folly (much of it courtesy of Hitler himself) did the tide begin turning. Stalin also relied heavily on US Lend Lease Aid. The Five Year plans are considered to have mixed results. In the absence of a counterfactual it is easy to extol Stalin especially when much of the information about the plans has been filtered through Soviet Propaganda.
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