When someone calls Orwell anti-socialist...

You're agreeing with his calling Stalin out upon his "degeneration" of the Soviet Union, when, in fact, I believe it was at the forefront of economic development under him. However, your next quote, with some revisions, fits my sentiments for you exactly:

I don't disagree with you that under Stalin, the Soviet Union was at forefront of economic development - but does economic development equate to being any less despotic? Any less totalitarian? The Third Reich was at the forefront of economic development, no? I'm not sure your point there.

In my opinion, it only continued and was strengthened.

Strengthened in the sense that it did create a large-scale, pseudo-communist world force; forcing genuine revolutionary uprisings to submit to it's power; or risk being isolated and destroyed. Never was it truly socialist.

What about the millions who died defending the Soviet Union (and, as it could be seen, the rest of the world) from the reaction of Nazi Germany?

I'm sure the workers of Poland felt liberated when Stalin and the gang invaded.

The millions who did fight fascism, for socialism, were fighting because they believed in a genuine cause, something Stalin clearly manipulated the masses with; while retaining a complete centralised, undemocratic state, cult of personality, mass propaganda bla bla.

Fascism must and needs to be fought where ever and when ever it arises, but lets not kid ourselves that Stalin is some great liberator from fascism, when the very state he controlled emulated fascist power structures etc.

Socialism in One Country, as I see it, was a necessity to build the economic base of the country and move from the the era of the NEP and War Communism to building a more genuine socialism, by the formation of industry and the continuation of primitive socialist accumulation as started by said NEP era. Stupidly expecting worldwide revolution isn't going to get you anywhere. Socialism is a progressive negation of the capitalist mode of production; you can't expect everybody to just rise up and revolt when class consciousness is barely present in most all countries.

Yes, I understand the theoretical concepts of Socialism in One Country, and understand a newly formed state must internally defend itself from external pressures etc. Again though, does that give legitimacy to Stalin's totalitarianism and tyranny? In the name of defence?

/r/socialism Thread Parent Link - comradesch.deviantart.com