Stalin: The “Good Guy” of the Anti-Colonial Struggle?
Some historical figures resist simple categorization. Joseph Stalin is one of them. In the West, he is remembered almost exclusively as a totalitarian dictator responsible for the Great Terror and the Gulag system. But across the Global South, a different memory persists—one that complicates the dominant narrative. The Think BRICS Chronicles documentary, Stalin: The “Good Guy” of the Anti-Colonial Struggle?, confronts this uncomfortable question head-on. It does not excuse his crimes, but it asks why, for many in the Non-Aligned Movement and beyond, Stalin remains a symbol of resistance against imperialism.
The mainstream Western narrative reduces Stalin to a one-dimensional villain. Textbooks and documentaries emphasize the purges, the famines, and the authoritarian grip of his regime. This framing is not incorrect, but it is incomplete. What is consistently omitted is the Soviet Union’s role as a patron of anti-colonial movements during Stalin’s era. As one academic analysis notes, Stalin focused Soviet policy on supporting anti-colonial movements outside the Soviet Union, forming the basis of Soviet policy towards postcolonial countries during the Cold War.
The Western narrative fails to account for why, in the 1970s, the CIA itself produced classified reports on Stalin’s “absolute dictatorship”—not to celebrate it, but to understand its appeal. The documentary reveals that Western intelligence was acutely aware that Stalin’s model of rapid industrialisation and state-led development offered a compelling blueprint for newly independent nations. The missing piece is the structural reason for this appeal: the Global South was emerging from centuries of colonial extraction, and Stalin’s USSR, whatever its internal horrors, presented a viable path to modernity without Western domination.
From the perspective of the Global South, the calculation looks fundamentally different. The documentary presents staggering data that is rarely discussed in Western classrooms. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union achieved near-total literacy and saw life expectancy rise dramatically. These were not abstract statistics; they were tangible proof that a non-capitalist, non-Western state could deliver social development on a massive scale.
For leaders in India, Egypt, and across Africa, Stalin’s USSR was not a distant tyranny but a strategic ally. The documentary shows how Stalin’s Comintern actively promoted anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and self-determination. While his methods were brutal, his geopolitical project—breaking the Western monopoly on power—resonated deeply. The video argues that this legacy is why modern Russia increasingly invokes Stalinist efficiency in its fight against corruption, and why the Kremlin’s message to the Global South today is one of “modernity without Western help”. It is a message that deliberately echoes the Soviet past to build a multipolar future.
For policymakers, analysts, and researchers, the documentary offers a crucial lesson in strategic empathy. Understanding Stalin’s appeal in the Global South is not about endorsing his methods; it is about understanding the logic of anti-colonial resistance. The West’s failure to acknowledge this logic has led to a persistent blind spot in international relations. When Western powers dismiss Russian or Chinese influence in Africa as “neo-colonialism,” they miss the fact that these nations are often seen as historical allies in the struggle against Western hegemony.
The documentary’s most original observation is its framing of “Fortress Russia” as a deliberate response to Western sanctions. It suggests that the Kremlin’s current strategy is not merely defensive but is rooted in a Soviet-era playbook of self-sufficiency and defiance. For analysts, this means that Russia’s actions in Ukraine or its partnerships in the Middle East cannot be understood through a purely Western lens. They are part of a deeper historical current—one where the Global South sees Russia not as an aggressor, but as a counterweight to a unipolar order.
Think BRICS Chronicles argues that the West’s vilification of Stalin, while historically justified in many respects, has inadvertently obscured the Soviet Union’s role as a catalyst for decolonisation. The documentary does not rehabilitate Stalin; it repositions him within a global context where his policies were viewed, for better or worse, as tools of liberation. For the Global South, Stalin represents a complex duality: a tyrant who also built a nation and challenged an empire. As the multipolar world takes shape, this nuanced understanding is not just an academic exercise—it is essential for deciphering the alliances and antagonisms of the 21st century. The full documentary provides the evidence, the context, and the challenge to conventional wisdom that every serious observer of global affairs needs.
