AFP: Russia raises Stalin's ghost amid nostalgia for past glories
Moscow (AFP) - Law student Mikhail Kosyrev used to have a negative view of Stalin but his attitude has drastically changed in recent years, he said, insisting the wartime tyrant meant well.
"Over the past five years I've often watched documentary films about Stalin, about that time on television and learnt more about him," the 29-year-old told AFP.
"And now I don't have any negative feelings towards him. He had good intentions."
Since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000, there has been a growing chorus of Russians who take a positive view of the Soviet tyrant's role in history.
WNU Editor: Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot .... these monsters will always have their supporters .... regardless of the evidence of the crimes that they did. In regards to Stalin .... when I hear people say that "he had good intentions" .... I just cringe .... and that is when I explode in anger at those who say such stupid things.
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To be honest I think it is the Russian liberal intelligentsia's fault to no small degree. Their attacks on Stalin were so over the top, so ridiculous and so at odds with real facts - and occurred at the same time as their sickening praise for Yeltsinite economic "reforms" - that Stalin could not help but start to look like he was unfairly maligned. If you didn't agree with the extreme liberals in the 90s you could not help but feel at least faintly the appeal of this Stalinism. "If those guys hate him so much, then how bad can he really be?" Remember that in the Perestroika years, Stalin was largely either hated or forgotten. The 90s brought him back.
Of course that is a very foolish reason to like someone, and one that betrays a shocking historical and/or ethical ignorance. However, it is a predictable response. I do think that inasmuch as this was a reaction to the idiosyncratic socio-cultural environment of the 90s, it is going to fade over time. Meanwhile the most hopeful sign in this case is that according to Levada polls, even most of the people who do like Stalin wouldn't want to live through the 30s again. A common view, I find, among the non-ethically blind I mean, is that Stalin made some very difficult and costly decisions in a very difficult time for the greater good. Very, very objectionable, of course, but it does mean that practically no one is going to support such a thing these days, because the conditions are plainly not the same. Those people just don't know history, don't understand that Stalin had repeatedly sacrificed the greater good of society for ideological and state goals, but their ethical compass is more or less working.
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