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Stalin lives on in ex-Soviet states, including Armenia - FP
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2013/03/04/stalin/
14:10 - 04.03.13
By Masha Lipman
Foreign Policy
When Joseph Stalin died sixty years ago, Soviet citizens sensed that
their lives had changed forever - and they were right. During his
nearly 30 year rule, Stalin transformed the USSR from the ground up
and led it to victory in World War II. He also killed, imprisoned, or
displaced tens of millions of his own compatriots; the full extent of
his crimes will probably never be fully known. His successors ruled on
an altogether more modest scale.
In October 2012, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
commissioned a survey of perceptions of Stalin in Russia and three
South Caucasus states: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The results
show with startling clarity that, for many, the Soviet tyrant lives
on. Of the four post-communist states surveyed, only Azerbaijan (which
seems to be more interested these days in emulating Dubai than
dwelling on its Soviet past) appears to have set Stalin on a path
toward irrelevance: 22 percent said they had no idea who he was.
(Among the young this number reached almost forty percent.) In
Georgia, by contrast, a shocking 45 percent of the respondents shared
a positive view of Stalin - presumably because he remains, as the most
famous (and infamous) ethnic
Georgian, a powerful nationalist symbol. In Armenia this number was 25
percent, in Azerbaijan it was 21.
Yet Russia is the place where, in many ways, the legacy of Stalinism
runs deepest. In the Carnegie survey, conducted Moscow's respected
Levada Center, 42 percent of Russians named Stalin the public figure
that has had the most influence on world history -- up from just 12
percent back in 1989, at the peak of Gorbachev's liberalization push.
Meanwhile, the number of those who express a positive opinion of
Stalin in the Carnegie survey reached 28 percent. To quote the Levada
Center's Gudkov, these figures represent "an astonishing resurgence of
Stalin's popularity in Russia" since the end of the USSR.
There is, however, something curious about this recognition: Traveling
around Russia, one would never guess the Russian people believe Stalin
is their greatest compatriot. Stalin statues or portraits are nowhere
to be found, and there are no streets or cities named after him. For
comparison the embalmed body of Lenin, Stalin's Bolshevik predecessor,
is still on display in the mausoleum in Red Square. Lenin's name and
monuments adorn every Russian city. Yet Lenin is slowly slipping into
oblivion: During the same period of 1989 to 2012 his popularity
dropped from 72 to 37 percent.
Stalin is a hidden hero, and this status is part of the inherently
vague nature of Russia's post-communist statehood and national
identity. Russia does not have a nationally recognized narrative of
the origins of the new, post-Soviet Russian state and no consensual
perception of its Communist past.
Russian Stalinist groups, Communists, war veterans and others have
repeatedly come up with initiatives of paying tribute to Stalin, such
as bringing back the name of Stalingrad to the Russian city (now known
as Volgograd) where one of the major battles of WWII was fought. Most
recently, a Duma deputy has talked about naming a street in Moscow
Stalingradskaya (after the battle of Stalingrad). Neither of the two
ideas has been fully implemented, but Stalinists can claim some
successes in endowing their hero with physical presence. Buses adorned
with Stalin's image have appeared in some Russian cities on Victory
Day and other wartime anniversaries.
In Russia the official discourse on Stalin is evasive, and public
perception of him is ambivalent and divisive. Almost half of Russians
surveyed agree with the statement that "Stalin was a wise leader who
brought power and prosperity to the Soviet Union." But over half in
the same poll believe that Stalin's acts of repression constituted "a
political crime that cannot be justified." And about two-thirds agree
that "for all Stalin's mistakes and misdeeds, the most important thing
is that under his leadership the Soviet people won the Great Patriotic
War" (the name Russians give to World War II).
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2013/03/04/stalin/
14:10 - 04.03.13
By Masha Lipman
Foreign Policy
When Joseph Stalin died sixty years ago, Soviet citizens sensed that
their lives had changed forever - and they were right. During his
nearly 30 year rule, Stalin transformed the USSR from the ground up
and led it to victory in World War II. He also killed, imprisoned, or
displaced tens of millions of his own compatriots; the full extent of
his crimes will probably never be fully known. His successors ruled on
an altogether more modest scale.
In October 2012, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
commissioned a survey of perceptions of Stalin in Russia and three
South Caucasus states: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The results
show with startling clarity that, for many, the Soviet tyrant lives
on. Of the four post-communist states surveyed, only Azerbaijan (which
seems to be more interested these days in emulating Dubai than
dwelling on its Soviet past) appears to have set Stalin on a path
toward irrelevance: 22 percent said they had no idea who he was.
(Among the young this number reached almost forty percent.) In
Georgia, by contrast, a shocking 45 percent of the respondents shared
a positive view of Stalin - presumably because he remains, as the most
famous (and infamous) ethnic
Georgian, a powerful nationalist symbol. In Armenia this number was 25
percent, in Azerbaijan it was 21.
Yet Russia is the place where, in many ways, the legacy of Stalinism
runs deepest. In the Carnegie survey, conducted Moscow's respected
Levada Center, 42 percent of Russians named Stalin the public figure
that has had the most influence on world history -- up from just 12
percent back in 1989, at the peak of Gorbachev's liberalization push.
Meanwhile, the number of those who express a positive opinion of
Stalin in the Carnegie survey reached 28 percent. To quote the Levada
Center's Gudkov, these figures represent "an astonishing resurgence of
Stalin's popularity in Russia" since the end of the USSR.
There is, however, something curious about this recognition: Traveling
around Russia, one would never guess the Russian people believe Stalin
is their greatest compatriot. Stalin statues or portraits are nowhere
to be found, and there are no streets or cities named after him. For
comparison the embalmed body of Lenin, Stalin's Bolshevik predecessor,
is still on display in the mausoleum in Red Square. Lenin's name and
monuments adorn every Russian city. Yet Lenin is slowly slipping into
oblivion: During the same period of 1989 to 2012 his popularity
dropped from 72 to 37 percent.
Stalin is a hidden hero, and this status is part of the inherently
vague nature of Russia's post-communist statehood and national
identity. Russia does not have a nationally recognized narrative of
the origins of the new, post-Soviet Russian state and no consensual
perception of its Communist past.
Russian Stalinist groups, Communists, war veterans and others have
repeatedly come up with initiatives of paying tribute to Stalin, such
as bringing back the name of Stalingrad to the Russian city (now known
as Volgograd) where one of the major battles of WWII was fought. Most
recently, a Duma deputy has talked about naming a street in Moscow
Stalingradskaya (after the battle of Stalingrad). Neither of the two
ideas has been fully implemented, but Stalinists can claim some
successes in endowing their hero with physical presence. Buses adorned
with Stalin's image have appeared in some Russian cities on Victory
Day and other wartime anniversaries.
In Russia the official discourse on Stalin is evasive, and public
perception of him is ambivalent and divisive. Almost half of Russians
surveyed agree with the statement that "Stalin was a wise leader who
brought power and prosperity to the Soviet Union." But over half in
the same poll believe that Stalin's acts of repression constituted "a
political crime that cannot be justified." And about two-thirds agree
that "for all Stalin's mistakes and misdeeds, the most important thing
is that under his leadership the Soviet people won the Great Patriotic
War" (the name Russians give to World War II).