Posted on 03/04/2005 1:13:47 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - According to 50% of Russians, Joseph Stalin played a positive role in Russia's life; 37% are of the opposite opinion.
These are the results of a representative poll of 1,600 Russians carried out by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center in 40 regions, territories and republics of the Russian Federation. The statistic error does not exceed 3.4%.
Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953.
Middle-aged people have a negative attitude to Stalin's role, while positive assessments are typical of the elder generation and youth. 46% of people aged 18-24 positively assess Stalin's role in Russia's life and 39% of them assess it negatively.
According to 42% of the polled, today Russia needs a politician like Joseph Stalin and 52% disagree with them.
Most Russians (61%) disapprove the idea of renaming Volgograd into Stalingrad and 23% approve of it.
It is sufficient to state that both Stalin and Hitler were equals in the category of genocidal mass murderer, without devolving into a debate about who their favored victim de jour was.
May the Lord God bless your grandfather for his service and suffering.
--Boot Hill
"Hitler didn't murder P.O.W.s on a massive scale. My granddad was a POW in Germany during the WWII and survived."
US and British POWs were treated much better than Russian prisoners.
Well, at least there is some hope for 37% of the current population there.
All the most widely acclaimed Soviet scholars (Robert
Conquest and Adam Ulam to cite only two) believe that
at least 20 million perished in the gulags and purges
under Stalin. One of the unfortunate characteristics of
human nature is to "mythologize the past". Some people
in Russia today see the disorder and corruption that exists
as Russia struggles toward a more democratic society --
so they tend to look at the past and see only the "order"
that existed under Communism. They view this with a certain
nostalgia as they screen out the horrors of the past that
were part of that history. It brings that well-known
axiom of Santayana to mind: those who don't remember the
past are condemned to relive it.
He didn't "save them". From any viewpoint, Russian or not. People who think so are mistaken, Russian or not. That was the point I was making.
Otherwise you could probably put, I don't know, say...another 40 million or so safely in the "may he burn in Hell" column?
And that doesn't count the 14 million dead from the Terror Famines of 1932-1933, primarily in Ukraine, but also Kazakhstan and other nearby places.
Russia saved herself in spite of Stalin. Sheer numbers were the Soviets saving grace. Also had it not been for American assistance the Soviets would have been routed.
Yes, quite right. Robert C. Tucker in his 2nd volume of
Stalin's biography, says that on the low end estimates
of lives lost in collectivization (which was also a means
of terror to Stalin) are 3 to 4 million and on the higher
end 7 to 10 million. He concludes that section by saying:
"Ultimately, however, the toll in death,suffering, and
blighted lives resulting from terroristic collectivization
and the famine...defies statistical expression. Let it
be said simply that Stalin's 'October' was one of our
violent century's most monstrous crimes against humanity".
I've amassed a large "Stalin library" and if you're
interested in some good books I'd be glad to recommend
some -- but perhaps you've got your own "library".
Yes, I've read it and it's excellent, coming from six
European scholars. I wasn't so much shocked by the Soviet
horrors since I've been a student of that for years; however, a very good "refresher" were the sections that
dealt with Castro and Pol Pot -- as Americans I think
we've become somewhat too used to those names being
bandied about and tend to forget scope of their horrors.
Would you say that Stalin killed people at a faster rate than hitler?
I know he killed more but I was wondering how the rate compared to hitler.
Sir, you must be an historical idiot to make that claim.
It's easy for you to think as you do, but to the Russians who lost millions of friends and relatives, Stalin was their protector and savior. He was without question the leader during WWII and is the savior of Russia. To deny it is to be truly ignorant of history.
I think there can be little doubt that Hitler killed
not only at a faster rate but in a shorter time. Most
experts believe that most of Hitler's six million victims
were disposed of within about six years. The liquidation
process was also an automated "assembly line" leading to
the crematoria. The Nazis were demonic but highly efficient. Stalin was in "absolute" power from about 1928
until his death in 1953 and had more time to perpetrate
his horrors. Alan Bullock is a great historian and when
I was in college I had to read his book, "Hitler: A
Study in Tyranny". Right now I have another book of his
which I must confess I havn't read yet -- it's on my
shelf of "required reading". It's titled "Hitler and
Stalin - Parallel Lives". It's (are you ready for this?)
over 1000 pages. I'm sure he'll give precise data for
their respective atrocities within timeframes. Another
thing I think it's important for us to realize is that
Communism was (and to some extent still is) a worldwide
phenomenon that existed for about 70 years in Russia
but its horrors were not limited to the Soviet Union.
I'll close with a quote from The Black Book of Communism.
Speaking of worldwide Communism,it lists nine locations
and gives the estimated number of deaths for each location.
It concludes:
"The total approaches 100 million people killed."
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