Stalin is the reason socialism has the taint of authoritarianism.
No he's not. They were calling us authoritarians before the ussr even happened and before Stalin was even born. The only reason this is attached to Stalin is because he led the first proletarian state for the majority of its climb out of poverty and into a world-leading position. He simply became the face of the first proletarian state and thus all the accusations of "authoritarians" that had been around since Marx first began writing were levelled at him. There's a reason all of Marx' writing addresses accusations of authoritarianism and shamelessly says "yes actually we are authoritarians to the bourgeoisie".
No he's not. They were calling us authoritarians before the ussr even happened and before Stalin was even born. The only reason this is attached to Stalin is because he led the first proletarian state for the majority of its climb out of poverty and into a world-leading position. He simply became the face of the first proletarian state and thus all the accusations of "authoritarians" that had been around since Marx first began writing were levelled at him. There's a reason all of Marx' writing addresses accusations of authoritarianism and shamelessly says "yes actually we are authoritarians to the bourgeoisie".