Indeed. Stalin was certainly less the ideologue than Lenin, more the power player. Lenin was almost irrelevant by the time of his own death anyway, brandished about as a figurehead/weapon, because the power play had already begun. Stalin, I think, never took a decision without pondering how it might affect his own position -- even at Berlin, he set two generals each against the other in order to exalt his own position.
He was, perhaps, the ultimate cynic.
He was, perhaps, the ultimate cynic.
