Reddit mentions of The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin: A Study in Twentieth Century Revolutionary Patriotism

While I didn't read that article entirely, this being a shitpost sub and all, the impression I got was that old Stalin was fixed on the individual/collective divide, obviously preferring the latter. Anarchism being individualist was one of his criticisms. The leap from egoist anarchism in particular to communism seems amazingly obvious, but Stalin didn't make that leap. Didn't read many anarchists either, according to some secondary source.

Not sure how accurate that is. He was apparently very well read, boorish persona aside. Scanning through now after Stalin's own wording of socialism he says the first major attack on Marxism by anarchists is to claim plagiarism. This is a long and sordid story which involved a Georgian writer whose name I couldn't spell in fifty years. The Manifesto was just a translation, according to some anarchist figures. Stalin being Georgian himself makes the connection there an obvious one.

This is a weird document in hindsight. Stalin seems to be defending Marxism from various anarchists (Kropotkin, for instance) who are in turn attacking what would in a few decades be a nice description of the Soviet Union. Egoism, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be on his agenda. Likely he never read Stirner, whose popularity must wax and wane like no other. Someone wrote a book which I haven't read on Stalin's mindset/reading list. Might be worth a look.

Definitely a communist, but also a patriot. Read this if you want to figure it out.