Hell No, We Want Joe!

• Share

Is Joseph Stalin coming back in style? Members of Russia's political élite certainly seem to miss him. Their views received striking expression in a 3,000-word article in the Russian Defense Ministry daily, Krasnaya Zvezda.

The author, Marshal Dmitri Yazov, a former Defense Minister who was one of the leaders of the botched 1991 coup against ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, describes the former Soviet dictator not only as "the greatest military leader of all ages and peoples" but as an inspiration for today's Russia. Yazov's article glossed over Stalin's errors — "even geniuses make mistakes" — and did not mention the millions who died in purges before and after World War II. More chillingly, Yazov had a message for the future: "The destruction of our socialist state at the end of the last century started with the massive slander of Stalin. The restoration of the country cannot happen without the full truth about him. To speak the truth about Stalin today ... helps strengthen the will and spirit of our people and contribute to the salvation of our fatherland in a difficult and dangerous time."

President Vladimir Putin has not gone as far as Yazov, but he has long been unwilling to condemn Stalin. He recently described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest disaster of the 20th century." And earlier this month, Putin once again defended Stalin's infamous annexation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Asked by a journalist about Russia's 1941 occupation of the three states, he answered heatedly: "If the Baltic states joined the U.S.S.R. in 1939, we could not have occupied them in 1941, as they were already part of the Soviet Union." Stalin nostalgia, some analysts say, shows that the country's present leaders are fast running out of ideas. "The Russian political élite is gradually turning back to the past for inspiration," says Dmitry Furman of the Moscow-based Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "And that means Stalin. If people have no future, they look to the past."