[ETL]

"Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor"

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131219/185734707/Putin-Says-Stalin-No-Worse-Than-Cunning-Oliver-Cromwell.html
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"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...

"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'..."

"The more I see and read about Mr. Putin, in power since 1999, and his 'managed democracy,' the more apprehensive I become about the future of Russia and the safety of its neighbors.

If Putin believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union into 15 independent states represents the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,' then it follows that Putin might well believe he should do something to repair the loss..."

http://web.archive.org/web/20090415000000*/http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
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"The demise of the Soviet Union was the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century'," Putin said in 2005.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11102.30640.0.0/asia/moscow-puts-the-soviet-squeeze-on-neighbor-nations
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"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communism's crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."

Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100711090651/http://article.nationalreview.com/365528/forgetting-the-evils-of-communism/jonah-goldberg
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"The demise of the Soviet Union was the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century'," Putin said in 2005.

"Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor"

[Don Corleone]

Best you all worry about the Tsar and Tsarina (ValJar)at 1600 Pa. Ave. There is the real danger.

[Smokin' Joe]

When the oil boom was going full swing up here, there were major service company trainees here from all over the world.

One such was a Russian, working for a directional drilling company. I asked him what he thought of Stalin. He unapologetically said Stalin was a "Great man" who had 'saved mother Russia from the Nazis: a strong man who kept Russia great.'

The company hand's ancestors were Ukranian, and the Russian didn't last long on our location.

However, the conversation was enlightening, and an insight into the definition of 'hero'.

For those raised under the subsequent government, those who emplaced or maintained that government will likely be taught as and thought of as "Heroes". The children who follow will believe in the 'heroes' who made that government.

Those of us on the outside will look at the horrorshow and think differently. It is the ultimate extrapolation of 'it's okay when we do it., and the ultimate confirmation of "The victors will be the judges, the vanquished, the accused."

What matters is not who did what, but who wrote the history books and how they characterize it.