Why Russia Has a Problem With 'The Death of Stalin'

In the run-up to presidential elections, the Kremlin arguably had more to gain from letting the comedy about Stalin appear in theaters than from imposing another ban -

Which begs the question: What did they fear would happen if they released “The Death of Stalin”?

In their appeal to Culture Minister Medinsky, cultural figures accused the film of “lampooning the history of our country” and “blackening the memory of our citizens who conquered fascism.” The action of the film, however, takes place in 1953 and makes no mention of the war —

The only people who could actually take offense at a comedy about Stalin are those who support him, meaning that the Culture Ministry banned the film out of a sense of personal insult.

What’s more, the authors of the letter were not concerned about the crimes committed by Stalin’s regime... It was the positive image of the dictator that current Russian leaders perpetuate that worried them.

Thanks to television shows about the 1930s-1950s, Stalin has become on onscreen symbol of the ruling authorities and the personification of the underlying idea of all those programs – namely, that the ruling authorities have, and will ever wield control over society.

Making a mockery of Stalin, therefore, is tantamount to mocking the leadership and is an inadmissible act.

These Russian programs inspire viewers to appreciate, above all, the “greatness of that era” – before which all of the crimes and innocent victims of Stalinism pale in comparison.

The guardians of Russia’s political order were scared not that some hypothetical viewer might be offended, but that audiences would grasp the message of the film very clearly: that every all-powerful regime ultimately meets with the same unhappy end.

Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied

After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union dismantled the enormous system of terror and torture that he had created. But there has never been any Russian ban on former party functionaries, nor any external authority to dispense justice. Memorials to the Soviet victims are inadequate, and their families have received no significant compensation. This book's premise is that late Soviet and post-Soviet culture, haunted by its past, has produced a unique set of memorial practices. More than twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia remains "the land of the unburied": the events of the mid-twentieth century are still very much alive, and still contentious. Alexander Etkind shows how post-Soviet Russia has turned the painful process of mastering the past into an important part of its political present.

It's not holding Russia back, but all the places you mention as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Warped-Mourning-Stories-Unburied-Cultural/dp/0804773939

“You’re another person who allowed your hate for Obama and fear of migrants distort your entire narrative of reality and of history”

Daily Kos or HuffPo couldn’t have said it better.

And if you think Russia’s Muslim problem is worse than Germany’s, recall that Russia has dealt with Muslim nations, invasions, and jihads for over a thousand years and even now has the luxury of a landmass over eleven time zones long with vast regions still underpopulated.

Muslim invaders of Germany, besides having been invited by Mutti Merkel & granted immunity from criticism of their savagery, are occupying a nation smaller than the Dakotas.

The Muslim horror is far more concentrated in the Fatherland than in the Motherland.

And yes, Barack Hussein Obama cannot possibly suck enough.

Thousands of Russians joined Islamic State and brought their children. Now relatives are trying to bring them home

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-isis-baby-20171026-story.html

Putin calls for revival of Islamic Education in Russia

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/putin-calls-for-revival-of-islamic-education-in-russia-60276

Up to 20 million Muslims make up Russia’s second-largest religious minority. Thousands of young radicalized Russians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join jihadist fighters in recent years, making the country the largest source of foreign fighters in the war-torn region.

Everyone should read this book: The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin’s Russia

A history of the migration of thousands of Americans to Soviet Russia in the years prior to World War II recounts how Depression-era Americans from all walks of life pursued what they believed would be better opportunities in Russia only to be targeted, incarcerated, and executed by the Stalin regime.

“That being said, I believe the average Russian is not particularly a fan of our kind of Democratic system”

The sad thing right now is a foreigner sees our system and wants no part of it. Our system has truly gone off the rails in the last few decades. We are engaged in numerous wars of convenience. We are in debt up to our eyeballs. And worst of all culturally, we have produced a generation of perverted and lazy human beings. Women in pussy hats, we are the worldwide home of trannies and homosexuality and half the nation is on opiods.

They simultaneously like Americans, and yet reject so much of what we crank out today culturally.

They want our lifestyle and personal security, but no foreigner admires the US government anymore. And we have taken a hit for all our dull witted college students, and for boys running around pretending to be girls. And every other man suddenly being accused of rape for every breast they squeezed all the way back to the early 70s. They see the US government promoting rampant atheism and tearing down statuary.

So they like us, and they don’t want our rot. They are in a weird position. How to get the good we offer without rotting the national morals, or becoming an administrative district of DC and the EU.

Ironically, Lenin and Trotsky were massive fans of the Western democratic system, to such an extent that they considered it inseparable from Communism (doesn’t help that Karl Marx also said that democracy was a key part of the path to socialism, and it’s pretty obvious his idea of democracy is the French Revolution). And the American founding fathers (well, most of them anyways: Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and to a certain degree Benjamin Franklin are in the gray area since they did support the excesses of the French Revolution, or Voltaire in the case of Ben Franklin) would NEVER have supported democracy either, viewing it as too dangerous, with the French Revolution proving them right.

But yeah, I agree, our country of America, heck, Western Europe, even, has really gone off the rails after the Cold War (certainly after Roe v. Wade). We really need to fix things right here, right now.

I will say this much, though: They really need to remove their Karl Marx statue from Teatralyana Square, especially if they really want to prove they’ve given up on Communism. As long as they’re still promoting Marx by keeping his statue up, they’re still Communists in all but name. I would have taken it down a long time ago if I had been in their situation. And yes, I’d say the exact same thing with Seattle and their infamous Vladimir Lenin statue, that needs to go.

“In their appeal to Culture Minister Medinsky, cultural figures accused the film of “lampooning the history of our country” and “blackening the memory of our citizens who conquered fascism.” The action of the film, however, takes place in 1953 and makes no mention of the war — “

Technically, it does in fact mention the war at one point: When conspiring to off Beria, Zhukov says “I ****ed Germany, I think I can handle a flesh lump in a ****ing waistcoat”, which was obviously referring to his driving out the Nazis on the Eastern Front of World War II.

However, it’s still a valid point overall, as Grigory Zhukov is actually one of the better characters in the film, not just in characterization, but also in terms of morality as well, which means that, far from blackening the memories of the Eastern Front veterans as the Culture Minister claimed, it if anything treated them positively.

And quite frankly, this film is needed to expose the horrors of Communism, especially to younger generations. What’s Vladimir Putin going to do next? Ban Animal Farm and 1984 due to it apparently mocking Stalin’s Russia? For goodness sakes, not only are Communists still running around in Russia (with Putin actually giving a speech that has him acting in solidarity to them), but they still have up Karl Marx’s statue in Teatralyana Square (funny how they tore down Lenin and Stalin’s statues in the various areas of the Soviet Union after it collapsed, yet they kept up the statue of the guy who started the whole Communist disaster, and at the center of the capital of Russia, no less). If they really want to end Communism, they should do what Germany did to the Nazi Party after World War II and especially bring down Marx’s statue.

Russia is far from the only country that does that. Just look at Mexico and Trudeau in Canada, it is the cornerstone of their agenda as well.

Is that really the same thing? Any Mexican or Canadian leader is going to distance himself or herself from the US. It's good politics at home. Voters expect a show of independence from their leaders. But any personal resentment is tempered by what American, Canadian, and Mexican elites have in common, and Canada and Mexico aren't acting out against the US to the degree that Putin is.

How much of the Russian government's reaction is based on respect or admiration for Stalin and how much of it is based on Russian insecurity and fears of instability?

Something like Veep, a show created by the same producer/writer/director, would have been very unwelcome in the early days of the American republic (if we'd had television back then).

That's not to excuse or justify the censorship, but the fear that things will all fall apart again if somebody doesn't keep a lid on things is very real in Russia.

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