MOSCOW, 3 May 2005 — The last public statue of Josef Stalin in Moscow stands forlornly here in a postmodern graveyard of Communist-era monuments here, missing part of his nose.
But more than 500 miles away, in the city once known as Stalingrad, the infamous Soviet leader is getting more respect.
Authorities in Volgograd are planning to unveil a statue of Stalin next week as Russia celebrates the 60th anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany. The dictator’s supporters see it as simply as proper recognition of the key role he played in World War II.
To critics, however, the move reflects an ominous and growing infatuation with a tyrant many Russians revere as a symbol of strength — never mind that he killed millions of his own citizens.
“Stalin’s return to the pedestal... would signify the political rehabilitation of one of the bloodiest dictators in modern history,’’ said Memorial, a Russian human rights organization, of the plans for the monument of Stalin and other wartime leaders in Volgograd, where one of the most critical battles of the war was fought.
Despite fierce criticism from Russia’s small number of pro-democracy activists, Stalin seems to have the upper hand as the Kremlin gears up for three days of high-profile international events marking the anniversary of the May 8, 1945, Allied victory in Europe. One of Stalin’s famous quotes from the war — “Our cause is just. Victory will be ours..’’ — is featured prominently on posters advertising the celebrations.
At the Reading City Bookstore, a window display is filled with copies of “Stalin: Throne of Ice,’’ a sympathetic account of the dictator.
A recent poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that half of the respondents looked favorably on Stalin, with 20 percent describing his role in the life of the country as ‘’very positive” and 30 percent calling it ‘’somewhat positive.” Only 12 percent described it as ‘’very negative.”
In Russia today, Stalin is a kind of poster boy for those who favor a stronger state and are angered by the post-Soviet erosion of job security and government-paid social benefits.
Alexander Prokhanov, a self-described Stalinist and editor of the left-wing nationalist newspaper Zavtra, said said that the ‘’neo-Stalinist renaissance” was above all a rejection of liberalization policies launched in the late 1980s, especially their effect of throwing many segments of society into poverty.
‘’When the ‘democrats,’ the ‘reformers,’ took power, they destroyed the strong state,” Prokhanov said. ‘’Today’s Russia hates these reformers and loves everything they destroyed. In other words, the people love Stalin just because the reformers hate him.”
Igor Dolutsky, author of a high school history textbook banned for being too critical of both Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Stalin, said that popular memories of the dictator amounted to a myth that could do great harm in the future.
Putin has taken care not to associate himself too closely with Stalin nostalgia. But he and those around him still benefit from the strong-state symbolism, Dolutsky said.
Estimates of the number of Stalin’s victims vary widely, but most historians say that 10 million to 20 million people died in purges, famines, deportations and labor camps as a result of his policies from the time he came rose to power in the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. In addition, the Soviet Union suffered at least 20 million deaths of soldiers and civilians in World War II.
Few Russians are ignorant of the fact that Stalin killed enormous numbers of people. But for each category of his crimes there exists some sort of explanation, which those who respect him often take as at least partial justification for his deeds.
Those Russians who respect Stalin credit him not only for the Soviet Union’s victory in its titanic struggle against Nazi Germany, but also for turning a weak agrarian state into an industrialized nuclear-armed superpower. Those achievements, they say, outweigh his faults.
The unwillingness to thoroughly condemn Stalin has had repercussions on the country’s diplomacy, including planning for the anniversary celebrations.
Moscow expects to host about 50 foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, including President Bush, at the main events of May 9 — the date Russians celebrate because it was already the next day in the Soviet Union when the Germans surrendered. A summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of former Soviet states, will be held May 8, and a Russia-European Union summit is planned for May 10.
The controversial monument to be erected in Volgograd depicts Stalin with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the 1945 Yalta Conference.
The ‘’Big Three” 11-ton bronze, which has already been cast at a workshop in St. Petersburg, is to be unveiled May 9 in front of the Battle of Stalingrad Museum.
