Iosif Vissarianovich Djugashvili, better known as Josef Stalin: a name whose simple mention brings cold chills to those of us old enough to remember him. Tyrant, dictator, drug-induced paranoiac, fanatical racist, mass murderer — all appropriate descriptors, yet none quite strong enough to evoke an adequate image of the man. He was, simply, evil personified.

And now, he is being reincarnated as a hero — the great man who industrialized the Soviet Union; who carried it through the “Great Patriotic War” (as the Russians refer to World War II); who brought peace, prosperity and stability to his people and their beloved country. Statues are being erected in his honor again; memorials to his six million victims are being destroyed; and now . . . with the approval, and even at the direction, of Vladimir Putin . . . “Stalin Centers” are being opened throughout Russia.

“Wait . . . what?!! Seriously??!!!”

Unfortunately, yes. It’s been going on for years, the majority of the centers having been created just since Vladimir Putin took office. Many, but not all, appear to be in rural areas, where the standard of living is lower and people long for the days of stability and order. These centers seek to “re-educate” people by glorifying Comrade Stalin’s many years of service to his country . . . while conveniently forgetting to mention the years of terror when a knock on the door could, and often did, mean the end of one’s existence.

In addition, an estimated 100+ statues and monuments to Stalin, many newly installed, dot Russia’s massive landscape. One in particular — in the Tatarstan region of Naberezhnye Chelny — stands out as unique. There is a bench that resembles a sofa, with a sculpted “blanket” draped over the back and one arm. Seated on one end of the bench is the figure of Comrade Stalin, seemingly engaged in rapt conversation, visually inviting passersby to sit down and have a chat with him.

Leonid Nevzlin, a businessman who fled Russia for Israel in 2003, offered the following in a 2020 essay for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL’s) Russian Service:

“‘Stalin’ is our everyday reality. The Putin regime has a completely defined relationship to Stalin, to Stalinists, to Stalinism. This relationship is primarily tied to the roots of the regime. The KGB [and other Soviet security agencies] cannot be against ‘Stalin’ as an idea and as a practice. Stalin is their patron, their fate, and their biography.”

He continued:

“‘Stalin’ is a special operation under which the population is being drawn into the process of Stalinization and being recruited to become neo-Stalinists. In the cultural-psychological sense, we remain a Stalinist society.” [Robert Coalson, RFE/RL, Jan. 1, 2024.]

According to Denis Volkov, Director of the independent polling agency Levada Center, 47 percent of Russians polled in 2023 said they regarded Stalin “with respect.” Whereas, during Mikhail Gorbachev’s era of glasnost, Stalin was regarded with contempt as the details of his crimes became publicly known. Yet today he has become “normalized” in the everyday lives of Russians. [RFE/RL, Jan. 1, 2024.]

“Stalin constantly appears in the public space,” said Denis Volkov of the Levada Center. And right along with him — God help us all! — is the return of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police (originally known as the Cheka) and master of political terror without equal. The people of Moscow celebrated in August of 1991 as they tore down the huge statue of his likeness that had stood since 1958 in front of KGB Headquarters, in what was then known as Dzerzhinsky Square (now Lubyanka Square). But in September of 2023, a slightly smaller version was unveiled in front of the Moscow headquarters of the SVR (successor to the KGB) foreign intelligence service. The event was presided over by SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin, a Putin colleague who, from 2009-12, headed the government’s ironically-titled Historical Truth Commission.

*. *. *

In 2021, Memorial — an international human rights organization created in Russia for the purpose of examining and revealing Stalin’s human rights violations and other crimes, and the recipient of one of three Nobel Peace prizes in 2022 — was closed in Russia for allegedly violating the “foreign agents” law. At the liquidation hearing in Moscow’s main court, the prosecutor ingenuously intoned:

“Memorial besmirches our history. It forces us — a generation of victors and the heirs of victors — to justify our history.”

It all defies belief. But it is all happening again, this time under the rule of Vladimir Putin. And it is terrifying.

*. *. *

And what about the future? Well — as Stalin knew all too well — get them young enough, while their minds are open and impressionable, and you’ve got them for life. And Stalin’s #1 modern-day admirer, Vladimir Putin, is not stupid. He has spent years studying Stalin’s methods. So . . .

New curricula — which should more appropriately be labelled “propaganda” — are being created for the schools. Youth athletic parades, reminiscent of Soviet days, have appeared, including in Moscow’s Red Square. And the littlest children — some as young as four years old — are being schooled in military exercises, complete with toddler-sized uniforms.

A whole new generation is about to grow up believing that this life — a life of regimentation, militarism, fear, paranoia, and unquestioning worship of their “infallible leader” — is normal.

And there isn’t a single thing we outsiders can do about it. As I was once told by a Russian Foreign Ministry official when I had the audacity to mention Afghanistan: “That is strictly an internal affair.”

In other words: “Butt out, lady.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/3/24