On the whole I agree with you mustard, but for a moment let me play devils advocate.
Stalin espoused being a communist, but the system he brought into being for Russia functioned more like a fascist regime, party members got more rights than other citizens, inner party members got more rights than party members, and anyone not native Russian got the short end of the stick. Georgians, latvians, Lithuanians.
Under the stalinist system the majority was denied any say in government, Leninism may have involved the withering away of the state, but stalin brutally changed it using much the same methods as the Spanish, Germans, and Italian fascists. Churches were burned, intellectuals rounded up, dissidents jailed or killed, and anyone who disagreed with "Big Brother" was made to disappear. Stalin effectively turned his state from the road of Communism to one strikingly similar to fascism, at least outwardly.
Still since Im playing DA I know that the USSR was nominally communist under Stalins regime.