Of Course the USSR is the most democratic!

After reading Nick's post on Italy's flavor of fascism, specifically the "Mussolini wrote that no individuals or groups outside the state could exist since this is a TYRANNY!" bit, I was reminded of something back from Stalin's Report to the Congress of Soviets in 1936: "the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. is the only thoroughly democratic Constitution in the world."

Stalin argues--somehow--that the USSR truly contains every element of democracy, but since there now is only one social grouping, everyone, apparently, has the same wants and wishes and thus, the need for groups representing specific social classes is no longer needed. The argument is interesting, and would garner much more support coming from an ideal communist state (which Russia was not, for countless reasons), but it is simply ironic coming from Stalin. With the existence of the Nomenklatura social class, I must believe this speech encountered ridiculously harsh criticisms, (especially) even from the members of the USSR itself.