Lest someone do stupid things with it.
The visage of Joseph Stalin once blanketed Moscow. But in the years since he died, his successors have relaxed official adoration of him and even allowed some criticism. The result: he was completely banned from the public space. A few attempts from provincial governments to erect statues of him caused immediate public protest. In recent years, though, with Moscow preparing to commemorate the 65th anniversary of its victory over the Nazis this week, Stalin is back—and he seems to be everywhere.
It began 2007, when Stalin’s popularity got a fresh boost after new high-school history textbooks praised his work industrializing Russia; that praise was repeated on TV. But things really turned around in 2008 when a social poll—run by a state TV talk show called The Name of Russia—showed that Stalin was considered the nation’s leading historical figure. Polls show that 16 percent of Russians consider Stalin their idol, and 54 percent speak highly of his leadership qualities. People who dislike him have shrunk from 18 percent in 2001 to 13 percent today.
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Unsurprisingly, Russian liberals are not taking Stalin’s rehabilitation well. Yan Rachinsky, the chairman of the Memorial human-rights center, suggests that this is an excuse for the Kremlin to legitimize Russia’s authoritarian past in order to justify its current government.
“Stalin was great even though he murdered millions! We’re doing all of this with only having to murder a few thousand people, so we must be greater!”
It is sad for them when reasonable folks have a hard time deciding who is worse: The Russian Government or the Russian Mob.