You should honestly read Stalin.
I look at the institutions he made possible for one. Take the DDR constitution, for example, something that Stalin had undoubtedly input in. Articles 6 - 18 outline in law all of the progressive bs that modern democrats harp on today. You can say all you want about how the USSR and its puppet states kept people in line via secret police or that this is propaganda but the reality is that the percentage of police within these state was made up of far less of the total national population than most of the world today.
The states and industry that the Soviet people built had enshrined within them fundamental socialist ideals. You can't ignore that the USSR effectively kept the US and capitalist domination in check and forced reform after reform on them simply by existing and thriving in spite of them.
