Deep cuts!
Russia has always been a horrible, retrograde place to live. Stalin did one good thing, and that was beat Hitler.
That said: It's likely that any other minimally competent leader of the USSR could have achieved the same results, with less brutality and with less fawning over Hitler prior to his sneak attack (see: Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the USSR's analogue to the West's shameful Munich Agreement appeasement policy).
Any other opinion I have ever offered on Stalin is either pure satire or trollbait for the self-admitted Nazis who used to come around here. Hope this helps.