"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote or how. What I consider extraordinarily important is who will count the votes and how." - Stalin. This quote pithily summarized the ideology of Stalin and his reign.,(reply>), Yes. He was a psycho with no ideology. Many of his quotes reflect absolute cynicism and ruthlessness; like "the death of one is a tragedy, a million deaths is statistics" and how he let the Nazis keep his own son as a prisoner of war instead of trading him for a captured Nazi general, because he wouldn't "exchange a mere pawn to a bishop" IIRC (the pawn being his own son!)<br><br>He also kept Beria in charge of the secret police even though the man was a serial rapist... Stalin didn't mind using him as long as he could use him.<br><br>Stalin was IMO clearly the most cold-hearted psycho one can imagine.