Stalin didn't try to protect the populace from misinformation. He tried to stay in power whatever the cost, industrialise the country and make it more powerful ( economically and militarily) and united ( aka destroy ethnic groups). People died due to those things, his stubbornness and refusal to accept reality ( industrialisation impact, Germany), his paranoia ( Great Purges, among other things), and his genocidal tendencies (poles and others) , not because they were murdered for spreading misinformation about the NEP or whatever.
Stalin didn't try to protect the populace from misinformation. He tried to stay in power whatever the cost, industrialise the country and make it more powerful ( economically and militarily) and united ( aka destroy ethnic groups). People died due to those things, his stubbornness and refusal to accept reality ( industrialisation impact, Germany), his paranoia ( Great Purges, among other things), and his genocidal tendencies (poles and others) , not because they were murdered for spreading misinformation about the NEP or whatever.