MORE RUSSIANS ADORE STALIN
By Stephen Wilson
It may sound childish to many people but I confess to collecting, painting and
playing with tin soldiers. It may wreak pain in your spine from time to time,
but painting tiny miniatures cuts stress. It is a kind of meditation. I often
purchase them from kiosks. So I went for a walk from my home through
Sokol to metro Voikovskaya. On my way I recall encountering an old lady
who had erected a crude fold up table selling fresh vegetables along with,
three small busts of Joseph Stalin. I wondered "Who on earth would buy
this merchandise? " When I walked on to the kiosk with the tin soldiers I
was hoping to purchase those intricately and superbly detailed Ancient
Roman and Greek figures. But alas , there were none left. Instead, you
had a restricted choice of Soviet soldiers along with a lot of figures of
Joseph Stalin either smoking a pipe or with one of his hands thrust into
his waistcoat just like Napoleon. Well, forget about stress -free painting!
Painting a figure of Stalin is not what I'd call good fun. But what struck
me was there were so many models of Stalin. Had the seller anticipated
a rising sale due to the dictator's rising popularity? Well months went by
and many of those figures were still there. He can't be that popular. Yet
a recent survey by the Independent Levada center might vindicate the
optimism of both the street-trader and the kiosk vendor. According to
this survey, Stalin's popularity has risen to its highest point for the first
time in 20 years. The results are unprecedented. As many as 70% view
Stalin in a positive light, while 51% respect him, 26% claim to be indifferent
to him and less than 20% deem his role as negative. As many as 45% of
Russians think his crimes were unjustified, down from 60% in a previous
survey.
How can we explain those findings ? There are several reasons. One is
that Russians tend to like a 'strong' leader who can keep law and order.
A whole mythology has grown around Stalin as the leader largely responsible
for winning the Great Patriotic War and making Russia a great nation. Another myth is that while Lenin suppressed the Orthodox Church, Stalin revived it during the war. He was a secret believer all along ! Another reason is that Stalin is equated with 'justice' which dealt severely with corruption, in contrast to the widespread corruption and crime we witness today in Russia. If only we had a dictator like Stalin. What might surprise people is the number of young school students who defend Stalin. At school , very little attention is paid to the repressive role of Stalin and his henchmen in school history books. You find only a few pages . In fact school students spend their time absorbed into cramming so many dates and events stretching from early Russia until modern times. So there is little time to study the repression. But in contrast, in some British schools school children do a whole course devoted to the Russian Revolution and the role of Stalin. Ironically British school children are learning more about Stalin's negative role than Russian school children. But British school children are safely learning about the Stalin's crimes while learning little about how repressive the legacy of the British Empire was. Ask any British school child if they are aware of the famine in Ireland of 1845-46 and the deaths of millions of Chinese who perished during
the Opium war and you will get a mainly bemused reaction. Neither many Russians or British people know about the repression in their own backyards.
There are also many books available which humanize Stalin. They emphasize
his supposed great sense of humor. There are countless anecdotes. Some may
be partly true, but others could be just half invented or embellished. For example, one story goes that during the war, whenever Stalin met a general he would greet him with the words : " What is this ? Are you still roaming about free? I thought you had been arrested? " This incident happened again and again. The poor general was shaken. Then after the war Stalin told the general : "It is not wonderful that we did not lose our sense of humor during the darkest moments of the war ?"
According to the memoirs of the Aviator Alexander Yakovlev , Stalin summoned him to his room to ask him to make a new fighter plane within just a few months.
Yakovlev complained it was not enough time. He claimed it took the Americans two years to build such a new plane. Stalin retorted : "You are not an American.
Make it! I came across one such book titled : Stalin laughs : The Humor of a
the Leader of the People ' by Khokhlov, 2015, which is sold in current bookshops in Moscow. Such books convey the misleading impression that Stalin was just a jolly, but warm and cheerful leader who enjoyed cracking jokes with his guards.
I recently spoke to a 16 year old Russian school girl who argues with her classmate about Stalin. While she attacks Stalin's role, the other girl stubbornly defends him.
What is disturbing is that the rising popularity of Stalin, partly due to government propaganda , comes at a time when freedom of speech is being so suppressed that one wonders whether it still exists in the public sphere. For instance, opposition politicians who openly criticized pension reform have been threatened with legal action and a new law passed recently makes it a crime to criticize members of parliament and officials. Now openly expressing an opinion critical of the government, in public, can lead to imprisonment. It is no accident that a famous historian set on attempting to rebury Stalin's victims has been once again been imprisoned on trumped up charges. It is also no surprise that surveys have found almost 50% of young Russians dream of emigrating from Russia. I meet such people almost every week.
By Stephen Wilson
It may sound childish to many people but I confess to collecting, painting and
playing with tin soldiers. It may wreak pain in your spine from time to time,
but painting tiny miniatures cuts stress. It is a kind of meditation. I often
purchase them from kiosks. So I went for a walk from my home through
Sokol to metro Voikovskaya. On my way I recall encountering an old lady
who had erected a crude fold up table selling fresh vegetables along with,
three small busts of Joseph Stalin. I wondered "Who on earth would buy
this merchandise? " When I walked on to the kiosk with the tin soldiers I
was hoping to purchase those intricately and superbly detailed Ancient
Roman and Greek figures. But alas , there were none left. Instead, you
had a restricted choice of Soviet soldiers along with a lot of figures of
Joseph Stalin either smoking a pipe or with one of his hands thrust into
his waistcoat just like Napoleon. Well, forget about stress -free painting!
Painting a figure of Stalin is not what I'd call good fun. But what struck
me was there were so many models of Stalin. Had the seller anticipated
a rising sale due to the dictator's rising popularity? Well months went by
and many of those figures were still there. He can't be that popular. Yet
a recent survey by the Independent Levada center might vindicate the
optimism of both the street-trader and the kiosk vendor. According to
this survey, Stalin's popularity has risen to its highest point for the first
time in 20 years. The results are unprecedented. As many as 70% view
Stalin in a positive light, while 51% respect him, 26% claim to be indifferent
to him and less than 20% deem his role as negative. As many as 45% of
Russians think his crimes were unjustified, down from 60% in a previous
survey.
How can we explain those findings ? There are several reasons. One is
that Russians tend to like a 'strong' leader who can keep law and order.
A whole mythology has grown around Stalin as the leader largely responsible
for winning the Great Patriotic War and making Russia a great nation. Another myth is that while Lenin suppressed the Orthodox Church, Stalin revived it during the war. He was a secret believer all along ! Another reason is that Stalin is equated with 'justice' which dealt severely with corruption, in contrast to the widespread corruption and crime we witness today in Russia. If only we had a dictator like Stalin. What might surprise people is the number of young school students who defend Stalin. At school , very little attention is paid to the repressive role of Stalin and his henchmen in school history books. You find only a few pages . In fact school students spend their time absorbed into cramming so many dates and events stretching from early Russia until modern times. So there is little time to study the repression. But in contrast, in some British schools school children do a whole course devoted to the Russian Revolution and the role of Stalin. Ironically British school children are learning more about Stalin's negative role than Russian school children. But British school children are safely learning about the Stalin's crimes while learning little about how repressive the legacy of the British Empire was. Ask any British school child if they are aware of the famine in Ireland of 1845-46 and the deaths of millions of Chinese who perished during
the Opium war and you will get a mainly bemused reaction. Neither many Russians or British people know about the repression in their own backyards.
There are also many books available which humanize Stalin. They emphasize
his supposed great sense of humor. There are countless anecdotes. Some may
be partly true, but others could be just half invented or embellished. For example, one story goes that during the war, whenever Stalin met a general he would greet him with the words : " What is this ? Are you still roaming about free? I thought you had been arrested? " This incident happened again and again. The poor general was shaken. Then after the war Stalin told the general : "It is not wonderful that we did not lose our sense of humor during the darkest moments of the war ?"
According to the memoirs of the Aviator Alexander Yakovlev , Stalin summoned him to his room to ask him to make a new fighter plane within just a few months.
Yakovlev complained it was not enough time. He claimed it took the Americans two years to build such a new plane. Stalin retorted : "You are not an American.
Make it! I came across one such book titled : Stalin laughs : The Humor of a
the Leader of the People ' by Khokhlov, 2015, which is sold in current bookshops in Moscow. Such books convey the misleading impression that Stalin was just a jolly, but warm and cheerful leader who enjoyed cracking jokes with his guards.
I recently spoke to a 16 year old Russian school girl who argues with her classmate about Stalin. While she attacks Stalin's role, the other girl stubbornly defends him.
What is disturbing is that the rising popularity of Stalin, partly due to government propaganda , comes at a time when freedom of speech is being so suppressed that one wonders whether it still exists in the public sphere. For instance, opposition politicians who openly criticized pension reform have been threatened with legal action and a new law passed recently makes it a crime to criticize members of parliament and officials. Now openly expressing an opinion critical of the government, in public, can lead to imprisonment. It is no accident that a famous historian set on attempting to rebury Stalin's victims has been once again been imprisoned on trumped up charges. It is also no surprise that surveys have found almost 50% of young Russians dream of emigrating from Russia. I meet such people almost every week.
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