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Carnegie: Stalin Still Admired in Ex-Soviet Lands
ABCNews.com
March 1, 2013 (AP)
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
MOSCOW - An opinion survey commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment says
that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has remained widely admired in
Russia and other ex-Soviet nations, even though millions of people
died under his brutally repressive rule.
The Carnegie report, released Friday, was based on the first-ever
comparative opinion polls in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. It found that support for Stalin in Russia has actually
increased since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The report has concluded that public attitudes to the dictator have
improved during Russian President Vladimir Putin's 13-year rule as the
Kremlin has found Stalin's image useful in its efforts to tighten
control.
The tyrant led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in
1953. Communists and other hardliners credit him with leading the
country to victory in World War II, and making it a nuclear
superpower, while others condemn the brutal purges that killed
millions of people.
One of the report's authors, Lev Gudkov, a Russian sociologist whose
polling agency conducted the survey, noted that in 1989, the peak of
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to liberalize the country
and expose Stalinist crimes, only 12 percent of Russians polled
described Stalin as one of the most prominent historical figures.
In the Carnegie poll last year, 42 percent of Russian respondents
named Stalin as the most influential historical figure.
"Vladimir Putin's Russia of 2012 needs symbols of authority and
national strength, however controversial they may be, to validate the
newly authoritarian political order," Gudkov wrote in the Carnegie
report. "Stalin, a despotic leader responsible for mass bloodshed but
also still identified with wartime victory and national unity, fits
this need for symbols that reinforce the current political ideology."
Putin, a former KGB officer, has avoided open public praise or
criticism of Stalin, but he has restored Soviet-era symbols and
focused on the nation's Soviet-era achievements rather than Stalinist
crimes. Kremlin critics have seen attempts to whitewash Stalin's image
as part of Putin's rollback on democracy.
Many in Russia have been dismayed by government-sponsored school
textbooks that paint Stalin in a largely positive light and by the
reconstruction of a Moscow subway station that restored old Soviet
national anthem lyrics praising Stalin as part of its interior
decoration.
In the most recent sign of respect for the dictator earlier this year,
the regional legislature decreed that the city of Volgograd, which was
known as Stalingrad until its renaming in 1961, should once again be
known by its old name on days commemorating the historic WWII
battle. In some Russian cities, authorities ordered images of Stalin
to be put on city buses as part of festivities.
The Carnegie report revealed that while a high number of Russians have
a positive view of Stalin, his era mostly draws negative perceptions,
an ambiguity that reflects public confusion, the legacy of
totalitarian "doublethink" and paternalist state model.
An even greater admiration of Stalin was seen in his homeland,
Georgia, where 45 percent of respondents expressed a positive view of
him. In Armenia, 38 percent of those polled said their country will
always need leaders like Stalin. In Azerbaijan, where respondents
viewed Stalin more negatively compared to the three other nations, 22
percent of those polled didn't even know who Stalin was.
From: Baghdasarian
ABCNews.com
March 1, 2013 (AP)
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
MOSCOW - An opinion survey commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment says
that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has remained widely admired in
Russia and other ex-Soviet nations, even though millions of people
died under his brutally repressive rule.
The Carnegie report, released Friday, was based on the first-ever
comparative opinion polls in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. It found that support for Stalin in Russia has actually
increased since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The report has concluded that public attitudes to the dictator have
improved during Russian President Vladimir Putin's 13-year rule as the
Kremlin has found Stalin's image useful in its efforts to tighten
control.
The tyrant led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in
1953. Communists and other hardliners credit him with leading the
country to victory in World War II, and making it a nuclear
superpower, while others condemn the brutal purges that killed
millions of people.
One of the report's authors, Lev Gudkov, a Russian sociologist whose
polling agency conducted the survey, noted that in 1989, the peak of
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to liberalize the country
and expose Stalinist crimes, only 12 percent of Russians polled
described Stalin as one of the most prominent historical figures.
In the Carnegie poll last year, 42 percent of Russian respondents
named Stalin as the most influential historical figure.
"Vladimir Putin's Russia of 2012 needs symbols of authority and
national strength, however controversial they may be, to validate the
newly authoritarian political order," Gudkov wrote in the Carnegie
report. "Stalin, a despotic leader responsible for mass bloodshed but
also still identified with wartime victory and national unity, fits
this need for symbols that reinforce the current political ideology."
Putin, a former KGB officer, has avoided open public praise or
criticism of Stalin, but he has restored Soviet-era symbols and
focused on the nation's Soviet-era achievements rather than Stalinist
crimes. Kremlin critics have seen attempts to whitewash Stalin's image
as part of Putin's rollback on democracy.
Many in Russia have been dismayed by government-sponsored school
textbooks that paint Stalin in a largely positive light and by the
reconstruction of a Moscow subway station that restored old Soviet
national anthem lyrics praising Stalin as part of its interior
decoration.
In the most recent sign of respect for the dictator earlier this year,
the regional legislature decreed that the city of Volgograd, which was
known as Stalingrad until its renaming in 1961, should once again be
known by its old name on days commemorating the historic WWII
battle. In some Russian cities, authorities ordered images of Stalin
to be put on city buses as part of festivities.
The Carnegie report revealed that while a high number of Russians have
a positive view of Stalin, his era mostly draws negative perceptions,
an ambiguity that reflects public confusion, the legacy of
totalitarian "doublethink" and paternalist state model.
An even greater admiration of Stalin was seen in his homeland,
Georgia, where 45 percent of respondents expressed a positive view of
him. In Armenia, 38 percent of those polled said their country will
always need leaders like Stalin. In Azerbaijan, where respondents
viewed Stalin more negatively compared to the three other nations, 22
percent of those polled didn't even know who Stalin was.
From: Baghdasarian