Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Stalin popularity among Russians reaches a 16-year high, poll shows
The Spokesman-Review ^ | 2017 | Adam Taylor

Posted on 01/10/2018 5:46:52 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose

While Stalin is a widely reviled figure in the West, he has a more complicated legacy in Russia, where many remember him as being a strong figure in the country, especially during World War II. In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed for a revised view of Stalin’s legacy that downplays his role in mass purges as simply mistakes made by a great leader.

A total of 46 percent of Russians expressed some kind of positive view of Stalin in Levada’s poll, the highest percentage of positive answers since Levada began asking the question in 2001. Thirty-two percent said they had “respect” for Stalin, while an additional 10 percent said they had “sympathy,” and 4 percent said they had “admiration.”

On the negative end of the scale, 12 percent said they viewed Stalin with “distaste,” while 7 percent said they feared him, and 2 percent said they hated him. A further 22 percent said they viewed the former Soviet leader with indifference, while 10 percent gave no answer to the question.

Levada, an independent polling firm that offers some of the best snapshots of Russian opinion we can see, also asked similar questions to gauge the standing of other Russian and Soviet leaders. Positive views of Stalin were among the highest, topped only by views of Leonid Brezhnev, who led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982, and by opinions of current Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two Russian leaders with the lowest positive views are the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his successor, Boris Yeltsin..

(Excerpt) Read more at spokesman.com ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: coldwar; expansionism; gorbachev; iran; northkorea; polls; putin; russia; sovietunion; stalin; syria

1 posted on 01/10/2018 5:46:52 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose
A total of 46 percent of Russians expressed some kind of positive view of Stalin in Levada’s poll,

Isn’t that kind of like the Brits having a positive view of Jack the Ripper, only multiplied millions of times?

2 posted on 01/10/2018 5:53:46 PM PST by Mark17 (Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning GOD....And the rest, as they say, is HIS-story)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

Bet he’s even more popular among US academics and journalists.

Just a hunch.


3 posted on 01/10/2018 5:59:41 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

More proof that there isn’t intelligent life on planet earth.


4 posted on 01/10/2018 6:06:11 PM PST by Catmom (We're all gonna get the punishment only some of us deserve.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

* Josef Stalin statues go up in Russia as U.S. Civil War statues fall

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/08/16/soviet-union-terror-josef-stalin-popularity/556625001/

* Joseph Stalin demonised by Russia’s enemies, says Vladimir Putin in Oliver Stone interviews

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stalin-demonised-says-putin-in-oliver-stone-interviews-jz78x9flb


5 posted on 01/10/2018 6:12:43 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

From folks that may have well ended up in one of his purges.

Ignorance definitely not exclusive to Americans, especially among the “educated”.


6 posted on 01/10/2018 6:14:39 PM PST by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

The estimated 20 million people that died during Stalin’s purges could not be reached for comment.


7 posted on 01/10/2018 6:20:52 PM PST by sleddogs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sleddogs

It was much more than 20 million since he never kept records of his victims.


8 posted on 01/10/2018 6:24:24 PM PST by bray (Pray for President Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: sleddogs

An article about North Korean views of Stalin. (Stalin literally installed the Kim Il Sung regime in the 40s. Decades earlier, he had purged Koreans from mainland Russia.)

https://www.nknews.org/2016/01/the-image-of-stalin-in-north-korea/


9 posted on 01/10/2018 6:26:20 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

No love lost with me...the fucker’s secret police beat my 74-year-old great grandfather so badly that he died shortly after being released.

Stalin and the rest of his crew of sadistic murdering scum will be burning in Hell for a long time to come.


10 posted on 01/10/2018 6:29:42 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

11 posted on 01/10/2018 7:59:38 PM PST by Last Dakotan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose
Putin's grandfather was a cook for Stalin. Putin worked for the organization that killed millions of Russians and remained faithful to that group (by his time the name of these secret policemen was the KGB) until its collapse. He reached the rank of Colonel. Putin describes the collapse of the USSR as the worst event of the 20th Century, which is very telling indeed since there are plenty of things worse than the collapse of the USSR. In fact, there was a time, not too long ago, when the Pope, President Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher worked together with people like the trade union Solidarity in Poland to destroy Putin's beloved USSR. Conservatives especially wanted the Soviet Union to collapse and its secret policemen with their spying and prison of death to end.

With the end of the Cold War, some folks forgot that there were really reasons to not like Stalin or Putin.

Today, Putin has his admirers even in the USA. It's not too much of a stretch to note that those in the USA who admire Putin are not much different than those in Russia who admire Stalin. Civil liberty, the rule of law, human rights, self government, and pluralism are valued less by those who want an autocrat. The fact that Putin often kills anyone who might oppose him is irrelevant to them. He's there type of autocrat, and what could be wrong with that they say.

12 posted on 01/10/2018 8:00:53 PM PST by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose
In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed for a revised view of Stalin’s legacy that downplays his role in mass purges as simply mistakes made by a great leader.

[sarcasm]Oh surely you must be mistaken. Vladimir Putin is The Great White Hope, the Defender of the Faith, the Man Who Is Going To Save Western Civilization. Never mind that he supports China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran. Only a "neocon" (and we all know what that means) could possibly doubt the holiness of St. Vlad.[/sarcasm]

In all seriousness, with half the Right insisting Putin is the (lehavdil!) "messiah," and the other half insisting Golitsyn's Perestroika Deception is absolute truth, who can blame anyone for becoming confused???

13 posted on 01/10/2018 8:30:11 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Vegam Yehudah tillachem biYrushalayim . . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

46% is nothing compared to how popular he is in the communist states of California, Oregon and Washington.


14 posted on 01/10/2018 8:33:49 PM PST by Newtoidaho (Proud member of Trump's army of online trolls)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise; Newtoidaho

I have spoken to some Bernie Sanders supporter-types...They dismiss Stalin by saying that it was Trotsky who had it right before socialism got messed up... (or something.)


15 posted on 01/10/2018 9:34:32 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

It’s understandable.
Russians can’t buy the smear campaign all the time. The undisputable fact is there,Joseph Stalin was truly a great leader in the history of USSR/Russia.

Just like Mao ZeDong, vast majority of people in China hold positive view of him, even though there’ve been horrible allegations.


16 posted on 01/11/2018 5:38:37 AM PST by granada
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: McGruff

Ping #1


17 posted on 01/16/2018 2:20:54 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

Russians don’t see Stalin as a Communist.

Stalin’s hero was Ivan the Terrible, and that’s how Russians see Stalin, as the modern-day Ivan the Terrible.


18 posted on 01/16/2018 2:22:21 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

Stalin did the exact opposite of Trotsky and Russified the Soviet Union. Trotsky wanted to destroy all vestiges of Russian Nationalism, Stalin wanted to preserve them, even resurrecting the Church during WWII.


19 posted on 01/16/2018 2:24:06 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Ivan the Terrible got his statue:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/14/ivan-the-terrible-a-bloodthirsty-conquerer-gets-his-first-statue-in-russia/


20 posted on 01/16/2018 2:27:35 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson