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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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Stalin was notably paranoid. He constantly reshuffled and purged party cadres, and closely watched and probed members of his inner circle (~7 people). He often brought them to his dacha, at night, for a supper, forced them to drink until they loosen their tongues enough; tested food on them, as he feared it might be poisoned. He probed them tête-à-tête, played one against another by sharing his "suspicions", etc. Even dragged them to his personal month-long vacations for closer monitoring. Not to say about spying. This is an example of a dictator, trying to deal with sycophants and the threat they pose.

Another example is about notorious over-reporting in Soviet economy. It seemed to me they used some concrete scheme to get right estimates, but I can't find details.

Ministries would want to help out struggling enterprises. On the other hand, the ministry itself has targets that it must meet. If it is too easy on its own enterprises, then the ministry target will be jeopardized. Enterprises can “fool” their superiors only at the margin. Ministry staff personnel have considerable production experience and are able to detect gross misreporting on the part of their enterprises.

For earlier instances I was thinking, eg, about Henry VIII's reign with his court, being dominated by factional strife. Again, I didn't find how exactly he coped with conflicting views from rival groups, trying to topple each other, but it seems he at least acknowledged various interests behind them (although, arguably still was over-influenced by certain figures like Wolsey, Cromwell).

When Henry heard of these proceedings he consulted the judges before summoning a delegation of the Commons to present themselves before him.

Cranmer had been accused of tolerating heresy within his diocese, but the King left him free to hold his own enquiry, and this exonerated him. Later that year, probably in November 1543, the conservatives on the Privy Council asked the King’s permission to present heresy charges against the archbishop. Henry assented, but warned Cranmer what was afoot […] Cranmer had not only survived the attacks directed against him; he had also strengthened his position and his influence with the King.

...to summon a synod for the purpose of defining the Church of England’s position on matters of faith. The discussions were heated and exhausting, and Hugh Latimer – at that time Bishop of Worcester and a prominent advocate of reform – recorded his opinion that ‘it is a troublous thing to agree upon a doctrine in things of such controversy, with judgements of such diversity, every man (I trust) meaning well, and yet not all meaning one way’.

Roger Lockyer, "Tudor and Stuart Britain"

suggest they didn't make the many catastrophic mistakes that they did make

It's hard to gauge, because mistakes also result from poor implementations and irreducible contingencies. I said "Putin’s awareness is underestimated", not that he or every autocrat is omniscient.