From the perspective of Marxist-Leninists who uphold Stalin, what are some of the key mistakes he made throughout his leadership?
I guess leting people like Berija and Krushchev get influence.
I would disagree on Krushchev, during Stalin's life Krushchev was either a genuine Marxist-Leninist, a master deceiver, or possibly a little bit of both. I don't think Stalin could have ever foreseen the Krushchevite treachery that was to come. Stalin's biggest mistake? Who knows? Personally I don't believe he dealt with certain international parties well enough, and in some cases he didn't pay them enough attention. I understand that this was at a point where Stalin was probably the busiest man in the world but the CPGB was on a firmly revisionist road way before Stalin died, imagine what could have happened if Stalin had payed closer attention to parties like this, and kept them on track more efficiently; the international Communist movement may well have been firmly anti-revisionist, and if this was the case they would have sided with China and Albania over the Soviet Union, there is every possibility that this could have led to a rise in Marxism-Leninism within the Soviet Union, prompting a break with Krushchevite revisionism, had that happened maybe we would still have a USSR today. Yes, it's far fetched, but you never know.
Not dealing with trotsky earlier!
Reading his works thus far, I see nothing wrong, he's ideologically consistent. Historically though he strikes some nerves with me. The Spanish civil war and the period after WWII are really the only things I have against him.
The 1936 constitution. It tailed bourgeois parliamentary forms of government. The previous system (which China still uses) of multi-tiered 'indirect elections'*, gave the party a much broader and more stable base. 'Direct election' by secret ballot did not lead to more competition as hoped, but by centralizing authority in the all-union party office it actually decreased accountability and made mass-line work nearly impossible. *Workers, peasants and soldiers elected local soviets, local soviets elected regional soviets, regional soviets elected national soviets, national soviets elected the all-union soviet. After 1936 voters (universal suffrage) voted directly for all-union representatives by secret ballot. It was based on the plan of the Paris Commune, and of course the experience of workers' soviets early in the revolution.
I think most of his mistakes were made after ww2. Which was the continuation of war time suspensions of democratic norms which allowed a lot of opportunists to get into important positions in the party and the Third Period Policy was also a mistake.
I would say it would be the Secret Police. Not for having one, everyone does, but for not being able to control it. In fact he had to kill the head of the Secret Police every two years, because it keep running away with it self.
