Absurdly popular does not insinuate perfect, nor do I believe he was perfect nor all actions done in the government under his leadership. I do highly doubt these claims, seeing as they come from the guy who wrote the black book of communism (source for most of the wiki article) and Anne Applebaum included lol. If I had to guess, those people hated Stalin and the Soviet Union because an unplanned tragedy occurred which probably could've been forseen. During a drought and famine, the idea of sending people you can't feed (or won't give priority to because they are not working actively and improving the situation for all) to an island which is capable of being developed for agriculture to quickly do that isn't the worst idea.

biggest point out of this: don't trust people who write nazi propaganda (black book of communism and Anne Applebaum) and then relook at the story