Why Russia is putting Stalin back on to his pedestal

Telegraph ^ | 20/04/2005 | Nick Allen

[Borges]

Someone I know living in Russia says the pro Stalin faction breaks down like this...

Those who think Stalin never killed anybody.

Those who think Stalin only killed those who were really guilty of their crimes.

Those who think Stalin killed those who were not guilty of their crimes, but the numbers are drastically exaggerated by liberal swine.

Those who think Stalin killed those who were not guilty of their crimes, and the numbers are not drastically exaggerated, but he was rightly sacrificing them in order to restore Russia to its imperial powers.

Altogether, these people make up for... uh... maybe like 50% of this country. Maybe more.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Imaverygooddriver]

A man who starved millions of people and they want to build a stutue to this creep? I was reading a book on this punk only last week on his "collective farming" where in 1933 5 million people starved, farmers had to give away every last peice of grain they grew, and if they were caught hiding any of it they were sent off to Siberia. How any of these Russians fought Hitler to "end facism" when their own leader was just as worse is beyond me. I imagine it was fight or die, as Stalin once said "It takes more courage for a Russian soldier to retreat than advance", but man, why didn`t they take this punk out on the way back from Berlin?

[Andy from Beaverton]

Micheal Medved had a Stalinist on his show call in. It was one of the most memorable calls I ever heard. He was red to the bone.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

War leadership my eye. The bugger pretty nearly destroyed the entire Soviet officer corps prior to the outbreak of hostilities with Germany and left the entire country naked and exposed to the initial German assault.

It's kind of like me and my cohorts in the IT world. Every now and then we have to break something and then become heroes fixing it ... just to show how valuable we are.

[cricket]

"Altogether, these people make up for... uh... maybe like 50% of this country. Maybe more."

Good breakdown; would offer these pro-Stalin stats work for 100% of the Liberals right here; in our country.

[marron]

Back in the bad old days, I knew a Russian refugee who would tell us what a great man Stalin was. My friend wasn't a bad guy, what he knew was what he had been told all his life, and he remembered some of the nazi atrocities, and he associated Stalin with the defeat of the nazis. He didn't fully believe the statistics, the twenty million dead at Stalin's hand, as he was a kid then... he was a refugee because he knew he couldn't stand to live there any longer but his knowledge of Soviet history was limited to what the Soviet schools taught him.

The Russian super-patriot sees Stalin as a tough-guy who made the world respect Russia. There are still a lot of those people around, and any Russian politician has to take them into account.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Under this theory, the Kremlin is seeking a return to Stalinist xenophobia, "discipline" and veneration of the state,...


I'll be very suprised if some national crisis doesn't materialize right around the time Putin is due to leave office.

[xJones]

Let's hear for Russian xenophobia!

Of course, though, Stalin was a Georgian who killed more Russians than Hitler ever dreamed of killing, but Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (aka Stalin) knew how to use the knout on Russians. And some still love him for it.

Go figure, it's like Germans that still love the Austrian Adolph Hitler even though he led them to disaster.

[henderson field]

What's the difference between communism and fascism? Stalin murdered more people than Hitler. And you wouldn't expect the Russians to put up a statue to Hitler, now would you?

[RasterMaster]

When their media is still controlled by the state and the leader is a "former" KGB agent, you'd have to be in total denial to say they are not reverting to their communist beliefs. Once a commie, always a commie!

[GarySpFc]

Joe,

Leave it to you to post a known lie. I have told you a couple of times my wife is from Volgograd and is familiar with the statue. The statue in Volgograd is NOT meant to honor Stalin in any way, but the victory of the allies in WWII. That is why Churchill and FDR are included. Furthermore, the poll quoted in the article is skewed. Less than 5% in Volgograd support communism.

[uglybiker]

Go figure, it's like Germans that still love the Austrian Adolph Hitler even though he led them to disaster.

Like the wife who still loves the abusive husband.

[Borges]

I'm not sure you meant to respond to me but as I said many Russians don't believe he was aware of what was going on in the Gulags. At the time, people in those prisons would write letters to Stalin begging for help. They honestly believed that he would be outraged if he knew what was going on. The only image they had of him was of an avuncular grandfatherly type who posed for pictures with children.

[xJones]

Like the wife who still loves the abusive husband.

"He may have been abusive, but he was MY abusive husband and he was strong! I miss him!"

[Verginius Rufus]

Maybe they should change Volgograd back to its original name...Tsaritsyn.

[ken21]

stalin squashed a red raspberry with the heel of his shoe....

[spinestein]

Stalin was the most prolific mass murderer in history and he did all his killing for the promotion of communist ideology.

[Free and Armed]

"the language of the campaign to rehabilitate the dictator suggests a more sinister interpretation, liberals fear."

Obviously not talking about America's illiberals.