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.
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.