Lets not forget that while Hitler and Stalin were playing their games, ordinary citizens of Germany and Russia did not vote for any war, hyperinflation, police state (neither imperial, nor soviet), collectivization etc. One regime was pushing people in the poverty, another one was using the faults of the predecessor to justify its own evildoing.

Debating whether Stalin really helped Russia by killing some generals and starving ukrainian farmers to death is pointless. Several high-rank psychopaths in Europe were manipulating people left and right with carrots and sticks. That's the main concern, not any particular tactic used by any one of them to achieve their own goals.