Posted on 12/02/2017 11:31:43 AM PST by GoldenState_Rose
"Political experts have consistently rejected the idea that Putin has reproduced the mechanism of Stalin’s power. They ridicule out of hand the very thought of it, arguing that Putin is not Stalin on the basis that there are no repressions today comparable with those in Stalin’s time and that there cannot be..."
"Why? I argue that this is primarily due to a superficial understanding of Stalinism and Stalin’s mechanism of power. The core of Stalinism was not mass repressions but a clandestine model of power, in which the worst traditions of Russian authoritarianism going back to the time of Ivan the Terrible obtained their complete expression. The model is ideal for consolidating power by a group of individuals, thus perfectly serving the interests and goals of President Putin and members of his corporation..."
"Re-Stalinization began in the mid-1990s, as the Kremlin sought to formulate a “national idea” (or, “patriotic idea,” as it is currently referred to) that could unite people around the central power...The austere image of Stalin offered the populace a welcome contrast to the injustice, criminality, and disorder that had been associated in people’s minds with the Yeltsin era..."
"Most alarming, these attitudes are not limited to those of the older generations of Russians nostalgic about the Soviet Union. On the contrary, it is the newly indoctrinated younger generation reared in an atmosphere of re-Stalinization that has absorbed all the apologetic clichés about the Soviet dictator."
...In my view, the most prominent feature of Russia’s decline has little to do with its struggling economy, runaway corruption, and poor governance; or even with its alarming demographic trends. It is about the process of re-Stalinization, which has dramatically defined and perpetrated the decay of Russian societal identity....
(Excerpt) Read more at jamestown.org ...
Irina Pavlova's books include: "The Mechanism of Power and the Establishment of Stalin’s Socialism" (2001, in Russian) "Stalinism: The Formation of Mechanism of Power" (1993, in Russian).
Other related articles:
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Impact of Bolshevism - https://theredlegacy.org/en/stories/bolshevisms-impact-on-the-russian-orthodox-church
KGB ‘Christians’: Putin, Stalin, and the KGB’s History of Manipulating the Orthodox Church - http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/11/kgb-christians-putin-stalin-kgbs-history-manipulating-orthodox-church/
Thanks GoldenState_Rose.
You’re welcome!
If you can’t nail Putin as a Stalinist,
then you redefine Stalinism until it fits.
Do I have that right?
Russia has everything it needs to become more of a player than it has been. Vlad’s putting it into play, albeit slowly.
he’s held it back.
Indeed.
Regardless of how your definition differs. Putin has overseen the rehabilitation of his image and whitewashed USSR history.
If anyone was looking for a clash of civilizations, they might check out Pavlova’s definition of “Russian fundamentalism” and note that it could also describe categories of “American fundamentalism.”
Interesting article and commentary. Thank for posting.
(Thanks to Putin and Russia for helping Trump defeat America’s criminal/socialist scum, Hillary. /sarcasm)
On her blog, Irina constantly stops people who try to compare Putin to Trump.
America’s bedrock values are WAY different from the fundamentalism Putin espouses.
In addition to pointing out that Pavlova (in her blog) makes sure people don’t try to compare Trump’s “MAGA” agenda to Putin’s fundamentalism,
I want to stress that what soulless-ness there is in the modern West — we can attribute MUCH to the infiltration and spreading of Soviet and Soviet-sympathizing ideologies that continue to permeate the leftist and secular movements of today...Continuing to plague our societal institutions now. Especially academia.
No matter how many anti-gay laws Russia uses to distract from the reality, Putin has overseen the entrenchment of nostalgia for the Soviet Union and the worst excesses of Tsarist empire as well.
A lot of Russia’s ideological problems stem form its development: the country always ended up adopting the worst of Europe (while America adopted the best and did away with the worst.) —whether it’s models of aristocratic tyranny, Marxism — they got their cues from the West indeed.
And the Russian Orthodox Church, while filled with much promise and treasures of the Spirit, has not reformed at crucial junctures in history and often ends up as a “handmaiden” of a brutal, corrupt State.
Maybe so. But I think that in the interests of Russia, Putin is the right man at the right time.
I see the infiltration and demoralizing of Western society as less a Soviet influence and more a triumph of Gramscian Marxism in the halls of many of our cultural centers. This Marxism doesn’t necessarily fit Soviet (Russian) categories, which reflect fundamentals very different from those of America. IOW, I don’t see Putinism as the main corrupting force within our shores.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/15545-gramscis-grand-plan?tmpl=component&print=1
Wasn’t the core of Stalinism to kill or imprison anyone who dared speak against you, and then kill or imprison their friends, family, and associates, and then kill THEIR friends, family and associates... Is Putin doing anything like that?
Of course they are different. That was my point. The categories are the same, but the content of the categories is wildly different, hence two distinct civilizations.
Siberia gentrified. A lot of potential.
I can't speak to the nostalgia piece, having never visited Russia. With the standard of living so much improved over the old USSR days, I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider them better, but I suppose it's possible.
I would have to disagree with the "worst excesses" charge though. Show me where Putin has opened up the gulags, starved millions of peasants with unrealistic grain quotas, or shot hundreds of imaginary "enemies of the state" and I'll accept it. Otherwise, I would view that as mere hyperbole.
Is he autocratic? Yes. Is he wily and power-hungry? Yes. Is he Stalin or a Czar? No.
Putin hasn't -- not yet anyway.
So bad though he is, he's no Stalin.
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