Not that Stalin specifically was right, I don't know enough about the specifics of his actions. My point is that either you make peace with someone or you don't and you remove their ability to pose a threat to you. So if someone can be trusted to support you, it's ok to leave them with power. However if someone will always be working against you unless you leave them with an amount of power you deem unacceptable you should completely defang them.
Reminds me of a point machiavelli made that basically boiled down to never half ass taking someone's powet.
Defanging the capitalists by asking them nicely to keep their mouths closed and promise not to bite anyone
Or as Omar Little put it "You come at the king, you best not miss"
so what youre saying is stalin was right?
Not that Stalin specifically was right, I don't know enough about the specifics of his actions. My point is that either you make peace with someone or you don't and you remove their ability to pose a threat to you. So if someone can be trusted to support you, it's ok to leave them with power. However if someone will always be working against you unless you leave them with an amount of power you deem unacceptable you should completely defang them.