A fatal desire for order (Russia)

International Herald Tribune ^ | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2006 | Nina L. Khrushcheva

[lizol]

A fatal desire for order

Nina L. Khrushcheva International Herald Tribune

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2006

NEW YORK The 50th anniversary of the 20th Communist Party Congress in 1956, at which Nikita Khrushchev delivered his so-called "secret speech" against Joseph Stalin, is being ignored in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Only last year, there were many phone calls to my family asking for their participation in commemorative events. But those plans were drawn up before May 2005, when Russia celebrated the 60th anniversary of World War II with the sort of Stalinist "brutalist" pomposity reminiscent of Cold War days. Indeed, portraits of Stalin were on prominent display as the "great leader" in the Soviet victory over fascism.

Since that bout of totalitarian nostalgia, public criticism of anything Stalin has been shunted off to the side. Today, Stalin is the country's second most popular historic figure after Peter the Great. As victor in World War II and a champion of Great Russian statehood, he remains revered.

So while some television producers still want to proceed with the secret speech documentaries, television networks one by one have lost their original interest. It's not that they received a directive from the Kremlin - we are in 2006, not 1937. But they can see how the wind is blowing.

[GSlob]

Regarding "order", Alexander Zinoviev wrote:
"...I razobrat' nel'zya nikak,
Gde zdes' poryadok, gde bardak.
I god za godom tak idyet-
Bardak poryadok sozdayet..."
[and one can never tell -
Where is order here and where's a bordello (figurative for chaos)
And so, year after year it continues:
Bordello creates the order*]
*The last line can also be legitimately translated as "order creates a bordello [disorder]". From which the author concluded that therefore order and chaos are equivalent there, and so indistinguishable: the normal form of order is a chaos.

[Monterrosa-24]

This is a very interesting article. Krushchev's speech against Stalin's crimes and permitting of the publication of Solzhenitsyn's ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH were monumental historic events.

I still own a collectable "To Hell with Krushchev" button which is about the same vintage as my "If I were 21 I would vote for Nixon" button and the same size at about three and a half inches. But now I have mixed feelings about the guy. His hardline positions were for his staying in power but his "opening" positions were for his people.

[Thunder90]

Premier Putin likes Premier Andropov, who liked Premier and President Stalin.

[Thunder90]

Putin has also authorised many momuments to Stalin and even Lenin.