![]() Just a few years ago, the idea of a state-owned news agency questioning well-known facts about the Katyn massacre-in which thousands of Polish officers were shot dead by the Soviets-would have been impossible: it seemed that the days of blaming the Germans were long over. And as historical knowledge fails to be passed down among the general public, a new mythology is rapidly taking shape. Even events that were never the subject of ideological or factual debate are suddenly starting to be contested. ![]() Yet it is an entirely natural consequence of the policy advanced and sponsored by the Russian state of historical amnesia and the literal rewriting of history. To people outside of Russia, it might seem deeply shocking and incomprehensible that Stalin’s popularity is growing at such a pace. In July 2021, Vladimir Putin signed the document, which also prohibits denying the “decisive role” of the Soviet people in the victory over fascism. The Russian parliament has passed a new law making it illegal to equate the wartime actions of the Soviets with Nazi Germany. Now the Russian elites are privatizing that victory to shore up the position of the ruling regime. Now, with 15 percent of the vote, he only just makes the top five, behind Peter the Great and just ahead of Yury Gagarin, the first man in space.Īttitudes to Stalin in Russia are intrinsically tied to the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, over which Stalin presided, and which has become the sacred cornerstone of modern Russian identity. There’s always President Vladimir Putin, of course, but even he has lost half of his appeal as a great historical figure in recent years: back in 2017, 32 percent of Russians polled considered the president the most outstanding figure in Russian history, up there with the poet Alexander Pushkin, and outranked only by Stalin. ![]() The trouble is that the pantheon of Soviet gods has been obsolete since before the days of perestroika, but it has not been replaced by any new heroes. In May 2021, 56 percent of Russians polled by the independent Levada Center agreed that Stalin was a “great leader”-double the figure in 2016, when the Stalinization of mass consciousness had already been a clear trend for several years. Yet the Soviet dictator, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet people, refuses to stay dead and buried. ![]() It is nearly sixty years since the embalmed body of Joseph Stalin was secretly removed from its display case in the mausoleum on Red Square and buried under the Kremlin walls. ![]()
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