No longer suckers for Stalin

last updated 8 January 2015

Russia

Editorial

Westerners keep accusing Russia of being nostalgic for Stalin, said Moscow’s Izvestia in an editorial. But that sort of naive sentiment isn’t nearly as pervasive as they think. A good test of just how mature our understanding of history is came last week, with the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Stalin’s victory over Nazi Germany. Many abroad and here in Russia feared that authorities might exploit the day as an opportunity to honor Stalin “under the guise of paying respect to war veterans.” Instead, no such “re-Stalinization” happened. President Vladimir Putin barely mentioned the man, and certainly did not praise him “except to point out that he was not a Nazi.” It’s true that a few Stalin statues have gone up in isolated spots around the country, and maybe some of the elderly long for the days when their pensions were, if not generous, at least delivered. But most of us have lost our illusions. “The official textbook of modern Russian history will at least point out that Stalin annihilated people on a massive scale, and did not save mankind.” For Russians, that’s an intellectual revolution.