One has to wonder how you’ve formed your worldview when you’ll take one point from one CIA cable and think it proves your point. Stalin was still a dictator, whether or not the scope of his power was exaggerated by other governments, and there are thousands upon thousands of source documents to draw from on this

Read further down in this document and it literally discusses the dire food situation in the USSR and the “poor material condition” of its people, contradicting your original point