What Does This Suggest?: “[Stalin] is considered one of the most successful leaders of the U.S.S.R. During his leadership the territory of the country was expanded and reached the boundaries of the former Russian Empire (in some areas even surpassed it).”
According to today’s New York Times, Russian state textbooks are now portraying the mass murderer Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili (aka Joseph Stalin) as a source of Russian greatness, rather than as a source of murder, backwardness, poverty, stagnation, and misery:
On the one hand, he is considered one of the most successful leaders of the U.S.S.R. During his leadership the territory of the country was expanded and reached the boundaries of the former Russian Empire (in some areas even surpassed it). A victory in one of the greatest wars was won; industrialization of the economy and cultural revolution were carried out successfully, resulting not only in the great number of educated people but also in creating the best educational system in the world. The U.S.S.R. joined the leading countries in the field of science; unemployment was practically defeated.
But there was a different side to Stalinâ??s rule. The successes â?? many Stalin opponents point it out â?? were achieved through cruel exploitation of the population. The country lived through several waves of major repressions during his rule. Stalin himself was the initiator and theoretician of such â??aggravation of class struggle.â? Entire social groups were eliminated: well-off peasantry, urban middle class, clergy and old intelligentsia. In addition, masses of people quite loyal to the authorities suffered from the severe laws.
The current trend toward rehabilitating Stalin (emphasizing his accomplishments, from finally contributing to defeating the Hitler regime with which he had earlier eagerly divided up Eastern Europe to the utterly absurd claims of scientific and educational advance) has been going on for some time under the impetus of the current leadership.
This is a part of the current “Post-Empire Syndrome” that is gripping Russia; I have been told by more than one aggrieved Russian nationalist (in the US, as well) that there may have been problems under the USSR, but “the whole world feared us.”
(The connection of Stalin’s “severe” rule with post-9/11 America is also interesting; the American government sometimes seems to specialize in giving foreign strong-men and dictators excuses for their unjust acts.)