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Since the Soviet Union was both attacked by Germany and was finally completely victorious Russians have a lot of resistance to coming to grips with the crimes of the Stalin era. Putin is of course playing on this as part of a campaign of boosting national pride. Russia has a dark history, it simply does, and Russians are very thin skinned about this. Stalin was just the greatest of mass murdering leaders and like Peter the Great is seen as a progressive force that lifted the USSR into the ranks of the super powers. The human costs of this are part of the nation's guilty conscience.