“Stalin’s new status in Russia,” BBC:
“…there is a much broader campaign to rehabilitate Stalin and it seems to be coming from the highest levels of government.
The primary evidence comes in the form of a new manual for history teachers in the country’s schools, which says Stalin acted “entirely rationally”.
“[The initiative] came from the very top,” says the editor of the manual, historian Alexander Danilov.
“I believe it was the idea of former president, now prime minister, Vladimir Putin.“It fits completely with the political course we have had for the last eight years, which is dedicated to the unity of society.”
Love affairs with Russia’s authoritarian past are not limited to people in Russia, unfortunately.
“Stalin raised us to be faithful to the Soviet people!”
Caption to top poster: “Stalin’s care brightens the future of our children!”
It is happening before our eyes. More and more Russia is resembling the USSR. The future is very uncertain and will perhaps be influenced by prices of oil and gas, which is propping up a regime that is killing the society.
Tom,
Everyday reading your blog can’t keep me away from writing a comment, because I can’t stay indifferent.
I was watching that TV programme last night,the results are pretty shocking for me as well, but still I should say that those people oting for Stalin are old, they grew up with communism in their blood.
But as for the books for the History Class I should say it’s not the worst thing that could happen. When I was at school it was already the Yeltsin times, and we had new books for history, with no Lenin or Stalin ideology in it. But my teacher of history was around 50 and he trully believed that there was no other truth but the communist one. The period of 1918 – 1991 was taught without any reading. He told us NOT TO read any books, no homework with chapters from the books. He was giving the material himself, and asking it according to what was lectured by him. The exam was also prepared by the same teacher….
That is why my trully believe is that in Russian schools not much depends on books but a lot on teachers…who are all still around 50-60 years old…
Hey, now that you linked to that classic 2005 post… did you invent the “jacket copy” comparison or did you get it from someone else? Either way, I may be forced to stea… redeploy it at some point.
It just came to me. But feel free to redeploy at will.
There’s more on the Putin worship at “The Fever Swamp”: http://tomgpalmer.com/category/the-fever-swamp/