Hey, Al Capone came from humble beginnings too! A humble origin does not guarantee a humble role later in life...nor does it guarantee compassion for the working classes.

In any case, Don W was referring to Stalin's lifestyle when he was in power as dictator of the Soviet Union, not the lifestyle of his family when he was a youngster.

Ruthless dictators can emerge from the working class OR the middle class OR the aristocracy...it's a matter of individual temperament, not of class origin. You don't get an automatic "good guy" ticket just by being born into one class or another.