Posted on 11/25/2018 3:59:26 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Stalin’s popularity among society in today’s Russia is rather superficial—Russians know little about the dictator and his life; they are rather nostalgic about the period of his rule and the achievements of his era. The image of the Soviet dictator as an outstanding leader is blended with Russians’ individual memories of repression and terror which affected almost every Russian family. These reminiscences however do not penetrate the public sphere at the mass level, which makes it possible for the state’s narrative to dominate it.
The Kremlin has exploited the ambivalent and superficial attitude which Russians have to Stalin. Even though it does not glorify him, it allows for his social cult to develop, and contributes to it by selectively emphasising the positive aspects of the leader’s actions and by mythologising his image. The Kremlin has been legitimising its power based on politics of memory, generating controlled divisions in society and mobilising its proponents. On the other hand, the government has made it more difficult to draw attention to the murderous nature of Stalin’s actions. Any criticism of him (from Russian citizens and civil society organisations as well as the international community) is seen as an attack on contemporary Russia and its present government which presents itself as the heir to the USSR’s and Stalin’s accomplishments and victories...
(Excerpt) Read more at osw.waw.pl ...
"Monuments are not the only manifestation of Stalin’s return to the Russian public sphere. Souvenirs with the dictator’s image – T-shirts, matryoshkas and postcards – can be bought in markets and fairs. It is possible to take a photograph with a person dressed up as Stalin in popular tourist spots (e.g. at Red Square in Moscow). Thus the USSR leader has become a trade mark which can bring profits. This trend is part of a larger phenomenon of Soviet goods and culture being back in fashion which can be illustrated by the return of food products with the symbolism of the Stalin era to stores, e.g. Soviet Standard, Soviet or USSR ice cream and the huge popularity of Soviet films and songs."
"A considerable section of Russian society considers Stalin to be the greatest figure in Russian history. For years he has topped the ranking prepared by the public opinion research organisation Levada-Center (in the opinion of 38% of those surveyed). Vladimir Putin comes in second (with 34%, level with Alexander Pushkin). On the other hand, there is a growing number of Russians who admit they know nothing about the Stalinist repression – in 2012 only 6% of the respondents declared this, whereas in May 2017 the number rose to 13%. Every fourth respondent believes the repression was ‘justified by political necessity’ and 36% of those surveyed think that the successes of the Stalinist era achieved in such a short time justify the sacrifices made. The opinions of Russians regarding the nature of the Stalinist repression are also changing dynamically. The number of those who treat it as a political crime has decreased from 67% in 2012 to 39% in 2017..."
I guess they forget how many of their own countrymen he slaughtered.
None of this is new. In the late 1980s I took a college class on Soviet society. This was in the era right before the USSR collapsed, the era of “perestroika” and “glastnost”. At that time the teacher (a businessman who was involved in setting up joint ventures with Russians and who spent about 50% of his time in Moscow) said that the Russians were really disillusioned with Gorbachev because they thought he was weak. They all said they needed a strong leader, a man like Stalin.
...in February 1989, two years before the fall of the Soviet Union, a research paper by Georgian historian Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev published in the weekly tabloid Argumenti i Fakti estimated that the death toll directly attributable to Stalin’s rule amounted to some 20 million lives (on top of the estimated 20 million Soviet troops and civilians who perished in the Second World War), for a total tally of 40 million.
https://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-did-joseph-stalin-kill-1111789
Bump
Kind of like the DemocRat party.
The movie “The Death of Stalin” ought to be required viewing for anyone who wants to know the fearful terror every day Russians faced at the hands of Stalin and his henchmen.
War winners always get the credit, the losing side’s leaders get the blame.
Had the Axis won, Hitler would be a lot more popular in Germany today. Had the Confederacy won the Civil War, Davis and Lee would be national heroes in the Confederate States of America today.
Stalin — 20th Century Genghis Khan.
Right? Heck, Stalin killed more Russians than Hitler did.
nostalgic about the period of his rule and the achievements of his era...
If I knew how to post pictures, and if they were as readily available as the horrific holocaust images, I would post pictures of the slaughter of Russians by Stalin.
The pictures of the holocaust exist mainly because we overran the Germans and our soldiers saw it and our newsmen covered it firsthand.
Not so easy when a dictator is killing his own to have those kinds of photos.
There is a passage in The Gulag Archipelago about some dinner or gathering where a toast is made to Stalin and subsequent applause and of course the NKVD or KGB are there and no one dares to be the first to stop clapping. So the applause go on and on and on. Finally some poor guy stops and instantly everyone else does after. Poor guy is later arrested and sent to the Gulag. That is the level of insanity that totalitarian regimes have that very few of us in the west can comprehend.
“A considerable section of Russian society considers Stalin to be the greatest figure in Russian history”
Just like George Washington is considered to be the greatest figure in the United States history.
His mother was deeeeply religious, his dad was an ill-tempered drunk who beat him.
He went into the seminary to become a Priest, his mother was delighted.
He read Das Kapital and inspired, he quit the seminary.
He became a bank-robber to finance “The Russian Revolution” (which in fact wasn’t really a revolution and whether it was really Russian, meh, I’m not so sure).
He wasn’t even charismatic, just a real manipulator, and pretty patient when he had to be (and not patient at all when he didn’t).
One time he and Trotsky were really expediting some paperwork, signing a blizzard of documents. By hurrying they seemed to be making time for some task they preferred. A nearby aide was curious, but dared not to ask, as even then Stalin had cemented a pretty good reputation for blood and wrath.
Trotsky and Stalin finished their paperwork to go do the really pressing thing —that turned out to be going to a movie.
The aide picked up the paperwork they’d been hurrying though:
Orders to kill 17,000 people.
And that was nothing in the grand scheme of Stalin’s Democide. Rummel puts the numbers for Soviet Democide at over 60 millions.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
This makes sense since Marxism is so addictive and the youth so gullible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Blokhin
Biggest executioner of all time: 7,000 Polish officers in a month, headshots, one by one, 300 in one day (.25 ACP)
A disgusting, cowardly, blood-thirsty insect.
Stalin or Blokhin?
Both, but this Blokhin guy really liked HANDS ON:
He wasn’t happy just giving orders, manipulating people.
He really, really ENJOYED killing people.
I mean up close, seeing their face, etc.
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