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Dictator Stalin stirs nostalgia as Russians remember war
Associated Press by way of Seattle Times ^ | 09MAY05 | MARIA DANILOVA

Posted on 05/10/2005 2:06:42 PM PDT by familyop


[Photo]ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO II / AP A big portrait of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, at left, was part of a re-creation yesterday of victorious Soviet troops returning to Moscow by train after World War II.

MOSCOW — One poster stands out among the billboards splashed across Moscow for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany: Josef Stalin against the backdrop of a Red Army soldier raising the Soviet hammer-and-sickle over the Reichstag in Berlin.

Stalin always has been a contradictory figure in Russia, seen as either the powerful boss who led the country to victory over the Nazis and made the Soviet Union a 20th-century industrial giant, or the tyrant responsible for killing millions of his own people.

Under President Vladimir Putin, he appears to be making a comeback, with monuments in the works and criticism muted.

After waves of denouncements following Stalin's death in 1953 and as Soviets learned in the 1980s the full extent of his crimes, the Kremlin has been quiet about Stalin in recent years.

Putin rarely has harsh words for him. In a rare critical statement, Putin told Germany's Bild newspaper on Thursday that Stalin was a tyrant but added that he should not be compared to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

"I can't understand you equating Stalin and Hitler. It goes without saying that Stalin was a tyrant, whom many call a criminal. But he wasn't a Nazi," Putin said.

Stalin came to power after the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in 1924 and began a reign of terror that lasted nearly three decades, ending only with his death. An estimated 20 million people were executed, imprisoned or deported to other parts of the former Soviet Union. Altogether, 10 million are believed to have died.

Critics warn that Russian leaders' failure to condemn Stalin's crimes means dismissing the values for which the Allies fought.

But the Kremlin may have pragmatic reasons for its silence: Recent opinion polls have shown that nearly half of Russians hold a largely positive view of Stalin and give him credit for the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War — as World War II is known here — despite evidence of his grave strategic errors.

Stalin had actually concluded a nonaggression pact with Hitler in August 1939 that cleared the way for Hitler to go to war on Sept. 1 of that year when he invaded Poland. As part of the pact, Stalin seized eastern Poland and took the three Baltic countries, but then Hitler turned around in June 1941 and launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, plunging it into the war Stalin sought to avoid.

Many Russians actively show their nostalgia for Stalin. A few thousand people in the Siberian town of Mirny, 2,500 miles east of Moscow, attended the presentation yesterday of a monument to Stalin featuring a bust of the dictator, Russian media reported. Local leader Anatoly Popov praised Stalin as "a great son of Russia who gave the people everything he had ... and took nothing in return," Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

Legislators in the western city of Oryol recently called on the central government to name streets after Stalin and restore memorials in recognition of his wartime achievements. Several other Russian cities also are considering erecting monuments to Stalin.

"We should once again render honor to Stalin for his role in building socialism and saving human civilization from the Nazi plague," Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said.

Zurab Tsereteli, a controversial Russian sculptor, has made a massive bronze statue featuring Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to honor the historic Yalta conference by the three leaders in 1945. Tsereteli is donating the statue to the southern city of Volgograd, where there is a movement to bring back the city's previous name — Stalingrad.

"I am just describing the facts," Tsereteli said, brushing aside criticism that he is erecting a monument to a dictator.

"Did they meet? Yes, they did. ... Did they save us from the Nazis so that we don't have to wear swastikas? Yes, they did. ... I don't go any deeper," he said.

Yevgeniya Furman, 75, who saw many of her Jewish friends sent to camps or killed under Stalin, says the despot should not be honored.

"Stalin was a tyrant, that's all there is to it," she said.

Alexander Yakovlev, a war veteran who was a key architect of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's liberal reforms, said Stalin's leadership during the war brought more harm than good.

He pointed to Stalin's purges of tens of thousands of senior army officers before the war and his decision to imprison hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war whom he declared traitors for surrendering to the enemy.

"The victory was achieved despite Stalin's leadership, not thanks to it," he said.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: nostalgia; russia; soviet; stalin; ussr; veday

1 posted on 05/10/2005 2:06:43 PM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop
Alexander Yakovlev, a war veteran who was a key architect of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's liberal reforms, said Stalin's leadership during the war brought more harm than good.

Right on.

2 posted on 05/10/2005 2:08:54 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator (This space outsourced to India)
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To: familyop

While we're at it, three cheers for Hitler, who revived the German economy. (sarcasm)


3 posted on 05/10/2005 2:09:38 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: KC_Conspirator

Agreed. The Soviets did not start winning the war until Stalin shut up and actually let Marshal Zhukov run things. Hitler, in contrast, listened to his generals less and less. Zhukov versus Hitler was no contest.

Regards, Ivan


4 posted on 05/10/2005 2:10:30 PM PDT by MadIvan (One blog to bring them all...and in the Darkness bind them: http://www.theringwraith.com/)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Ping!


5 posted on 05/10/2005 2:15:22 PM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

How quickly they forget...


6 posted on 05/10/2005 2:15:39 PM PDT by xcamel (Deep Red, stuck in a "bleu" state.)
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To: Steve_Seattle

Yes and three cheers for Mussolini because he made the trains run on time!


7 posted on 05/10/2005 2:16:18 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator (This space outsourced to India)
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To: MadIvan

And let's not forget the thousands of Red Army vets who were shipped off to the Gulag after the war for committing the crime of seeing Europe outside of Russia.


8 posted on 05/10/2005 2:16:41 PM PDT by ABG(anybody but Gore) (From Roe v Wade to Terri Schiavo, the RATS have become a death cult...)
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To: KC_Conspirator

That's the key issue. Some people seem to want order at any price.


9 posted on 05/10/2005 2:17:03 PM PDT by Borges
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To: MadIvan
I look at the celebration train as a re-enactment of what happened on the 1st celebration after the victory.

Sommetimes a cigar is just a cigar... sometimes a picture of that GEORGIAN DICATOR, JOSEPH STALIN IS JUST A PICTURE.

:^ ) LOL

10 posted on 05/10/2005 2:19:07 PM PDT by Lion in Winter (Getting old is NOT for sissies.... trust me, I know!)
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To: familyop
The reason they do is because they have never been taught the true history of the origins of World War II. They don't know that Stalin and Hitler partitioned eastern Europe 2 weeks before the invasion of Poland that started the war in Europe.

Next time some idiot says History is boring, they should be reminded that World war II was definitely not boring to those that fought it, lived through it or died in it.
11 posted on 05/10/2005 2:57:29 PM PDT by dinok
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To: familyop
Did they save us from the Nazis so that we don't have to wear swastikas? Yes, they did. ... I don't go any deeper," he said.

The Nazis wouldnt allow Russians to wear Swastikas, you would most likely be mineing raw materials for the Fatherland in some forced labor camp.
12 posted on 05/10/2005 3:44:14 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: dinok

They never seem to make any war movies about the war in the Eastern front, which was where some of the greatest battles in history were fought. There is a geat movie screaming to be made.


13 posted on 05/10/2005 3:47:08 PM PDT by Husker24
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: MadIvan
I'm hearing rumours from back home that the Queen did not attend the WW11 commemorations because Blair did not want her too.

Any truth to this?

FRegards,

15 posted on 05/10/2005 5:06:45 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (Anaheim Angels - 2002 World Series Champions)
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To: MadIvan

No. It was the USA who lead the victory over Germany.
Not only did we give them everything from airplanes to A-bombs. But also gave them all the German battle plans. gotten from our breaking the Japanese purple code. ( yes the Japanese ) ( a good read on this is the book:
Marching Orders
Bruce Lee 1995 )
And
Hitler And the SS
One of the reasons The German Army advanced so fast. Is at first the people looked at Hitler as there savior & liberator from Stalin. So did not fight and “ stuck there bayonets in the snow” .
The dumb SS after there capture started shooting them and sent the off to the camps.
So they had a choice die under Hitler or live under Stalin. And started to fight back.
If the Germans had treated these people as liberated people. They would have picked up there arms and lead the way to Moscow.


16 posted on 05/11/2005 12:17:22 AM PDT by quietolong
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