[ptaipale]

>We can blame Stalin for a lot of things, but I'm not sure what alternative he had to a non-aggression pact with Hitler, other than simply watching Panzer divisions roll up to the Soviet border.

Stalin had a lot of alternatives. USSR spoke a lot about peace; it could lived up to this speech and seeked to support its neighbours against Germany when Hitler was perceived a threat.

Instead, Stalin decide to invade his neighbours, split the spheres of influence, murder any potential opposition in the parts is controlled, perform ethnic cleansing.

Stalin did have other options, but he was paranoid and power-hungry and thus he did what he did. I think it is a rather desperate whitewash to say he had no alternative. Yes, he did have.

Regarding the killings at the Stalin Canal works, Tuominen of course isn't the only witness and historian to document the killings on camps. And those who survived the experiment and wouldn't die of hunger were then taken to a ditch and were shot in places like Sandarmokh. The memorial is still there, although it seems Russia is developing to a direction where it may yet wipe it out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandarmokh