Father of your EU state, I see. Giving him due honor, I see. Oh, does your Polish Communist government still print little excerpts about Lenin in the kids textbooks?
Posted on 05/01/2005 12:48:31 PM PDT by wagglebee
Officials in Volgograd, Russia are planning to unveil a statue of Stalin next week as Russia celebrates the 60th anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany, according to a report in the LA Times.
While some nod at the recognition of the key role he played in World War II, criticism predictably flows from Russia's small number of pro-democracy activists.
Alexander Bushkov, author of "Stalin: Throne of Ice," says, "Without Stalin, neither this Great Victory nor this country in general would have been possible. Those were heroic times, and such people will never be born again."
But Igor Dolutsky, author of a high school textbook banned for being too critical of both Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Stalin, said that popular memories of the dictator amounted to a myth that could do great harm in the future.
"The essence of this myth is that violence, terror and repression can be effectively used to build a great country," Dolutsky said. "I think that the return to Stalinist traditions is actually dangerous."
A recent poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center 20 percent of respondents described his role in the life of the country as "very positive" and 30 percent called it "somewhat positive." Only 12 percent described it as "very negative."
Stalin is an icon for those whose long for a stronger state and are angered by the post-Soviet loss of jobs and benefits.
Historians say that 10 million to 20 million people died in purges, famines, deportations and labor camps as a result of his policies from the time he rose to power in the mid-1920s until his death in 1953.
The Ministry of Truth has spoken, how dare you question the Truth?
Father of your EU state, I see. Giving him due honor, I see. Oh, does your Polish Communist government still print little excerpts about Lenin in the kids textbooks?
Here's the same story in the Telegraph.
Forget the statue of Comrade Stalin. Let them put up a statue of Comrade Krushchev banging his shoe on the table at the UN.
It's a statue of Stalin. There's no spinning that, although treasonous Russia First Kremlin bootlicker Soviet apologists sure will try!
Destro, what are you talking about? What facts are misconstrued by the thread article?
What is a neo-con?
He's trying to say that those crafty Joooos who run Newsmax and the rest of the "Main Stream Media" want to con you into being enemies with Russia! LOL!
Well, demkicker, the National dead under Stalin's rule can't be counted. The 20 million is a very low number. I am not implying any number less than 60,000,000. My humble higher estimate is 120,000,000 to 200,000,000 and continuing by grace of Valdimir Putin. This machine hasn't stopped... regardless of time gone by the bye............
Interesting post, TgJ. Thanks for the peek-a-boo about Soviet intentions.
So, you are Destro's mouthpiece?
No doubt.
Yes indeed, but my original observation stands because it has nothing to do with the statue, and everything to do with the moral bankruptcy of a certain individual.
Tailgunner Joe things Lech Walesa was a KGB agent and the fall of Communisim was a KGB plot to lull the West into a sense of insecurity and then sneak attack us.
Try this for size. I'm a reservist; last year I was deployed in Uzbekistan (supporting our mission in Afghanistan), formerly part of the USSR. This is in Central Asia, not many Russians about, but all Uzbeks still speak Russian (hang on, I'm getting to my point).
At our base camp we had many young Uzbek women working as secretaries. Educated, English-speaking, and total knockouts, by the way. I was talking to one, and yes, I was telling her, do things the American way and your people will prosper. This lovely 22-year-old interrupted me and said, "I want you to know something: I admire Josef Stalin!"
I said, "Because he killed millions of people?" Iuliya (her name) replied, "you need a strong hand for such a large nation as the USSR!" I was dumbfounded, obviously.
The Uzbek case is special. Today Uzbekistan is the only double-landlocked nation in the world. But before 1992 they were part of something huge (the Soviet Union). I think the Stalin-worship of today is symptomatic: once we were feared even more than we were hated, and we miss that.
Dang!
It's a good thing to remember that unlike us, or the Brits, French, or even Germans, the Russians never really had a democratic government till Boris Yeltsin, and that one was completely corrupt. Putin started off on the right track with the flat tax, but has since slid back into the old totalitarian ways. I don't know if it's Chechnya or him just sliding back into his old KGB ways, but Putin seems determined to bring Russia back to the bad old days.
Thank You, Tailgunner Joe, you saved life...
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