Sad and pathetic, Russian lawmakers want more honor of Stalin

The BBQ Pit
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_eu/russia_stalin
Even a regional official in Oryol in charge of protecting the rights of victims of political repression, Nina Nesterina, was equivocal in her attitude to Stalin.

“It is not a simple issue. Stalin was not really responsible for the repressions. In all official documents the orders are from the NKVD (the forerunner of the KGB), military tribunals. A system of repression existed and functioned by itself,” she told Izvestia.

I remember when I used to post on the Pravda messageboard there was an old man talking about how great Stalin was and how the Jews killed him.

I know i’m an american and as a result i’ve essentially been brainwashed into hating the enemies of the US government (Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Nazi Germany, the USSR, etc), but even a bystander has to see what a train wreck Stalin was. He took a revolution based on human rights and equality and turned it into his own pathetic attempt to sieze power, he was literally mentally ill to the point where he couldn’t tell friends from enemies. He trusted Hitler and allowed helped Hitler take over Poland. He killed off the military leadership due to his mental illness driven purges and whenever he made military decisions himself they led to Russians dying. The human rights record in the USSR under Stalin was arguably the worst in history. Supposedly Stalin was murdered by his inner circle with warfarin (he died of a brain blood clot, and warfarin is a blood thinner) because he was planning another 5-10 million human being genocide against the Jews and other undesirable, and because he was even considering a nuclear war against the US Whatever good that came out of the USSR (the growth of public education, the social equality, helping to bring down Nazi Germany) was largely despise Stalin, not due to him.

Its a sad testament on human nature that a power hungry dictator who killed millions because his mentally unbalanced mind thought they were threats, who starved millions of people intentionally, and who personally got in the way of military competence is considered a great leader just because he had a good brainwashing operation going on. Even now that the Russians are out form under his thumb they still love him, even though his mistakes are public record.

Sadly I am sure that in fifty years this same thing will be happening with Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung and their legacy after North Korea is a more free, more open society. “Sure he rejected humanitarian aid, sure his human rights record was the worst on earth, but he was a great leader”.

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That must be what happened at Abu Ghraib.

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Actually, I have to take minor issue in that Vladimir (“Lenin”) Ulyanov had established himself as quite the bloodthirsty tyrant and could easily have racked up a similar number of deaths, had he not dropped dead in 1924. What Stalin inherited wasn’t exactly a utopia.

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When Stalin died, the Soviet Union was a world power, controlling almost half the globe. Its citizens could dream of a future where their ideas could sweep over the rest of the world. They were convinced they were the future.

Now, Russia isn’t a world power anymore. The rest of the world isn’t afraid of them, and they no longer believe they’re on the cutting edge of history.

That’s what the Russians miss about Stalin.

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I was going to mention that. Apparently it was by Lenin’s order that the Gulags were instituted to quash “Counter-revolutionary(my favorite communist word) activity”. Lenin was certainly no saint.

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While the man was paranoid, I’m not sure you can really say he was mentally ill. He always knew exactly what he was doing, and simply took action against those who were or might become threats. He was simply evil, not insane.

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To be fair, Lenin certainly wasn’t above taking that revolution based on human rights and turning it into his own pathetic attempt to seize power.

It wasn’t but a few years after the death of Stalin that the Soviets started to edit him out of propaganda. The Party downplayed his importance and even went on about what a villain he was. I’m a bit surprised they’d try to honor him these days. I guess the Soviets still have mixed feelings about Stalin.

Marc

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I think you misspelled “survivors”.

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Er, to be clinically paranoid (and I think it likely that Stalin was clinically paranoid, not merely “paranoid” in the colloquial sense of having an extremely cautious and suspicious mindset) is to be mentally ill.

That said, being mentally ill is not sufficient to be “insane” in the legal/moral sense (of being so far out of touch with reality as to lack responsibiltiy for one’s actions). I’ll certainly agree that Stalin was indeed evil, not insane.

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After he was dead, Politburo members took Stalin’s body to a dirt road, at an unknown location in Russia, & buried his body under a crossroads.
With his head cut off.
To keep him from rising.

How very appropriate.

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Regrettably, the fact that I live in a country that deisgnates a national holiday to honor a genocidal ego maniac (Christopher Columbus), I really cannot pass too much judgment on the Russians. Although, I can say, that all countries should not honor genocidal maniacs.

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We named our continent and our country after another one (Amerigo Vespucci). We also put a genocidal ego maniac (Indian Hater Jackson) on our twenty dollar bill. But I do take solace from the fact that I spend a lot of time sitting on his face.

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No they didn’t-he’s buried in the Kremlin.

As one of my professors put it, as hated as Stalin was by the people, they were upset when he passed because at least the rest of the world was AFRAID of him. That way, Russia was safe. Without Stalin, they weren’t.

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Oh, come off it. Jackson certainly considered the various Indians he made war against to be enemies, and likely shared the racist views regarding them that were common at the time. But at least he didn’t go around having his political rivals jailed and assassinated, and then literally rubbed out of all records and photographs. Stalin did those things.
err, that would be…drawings and engravings, I guess, not photographs

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Obviously, the dead didn’t think anything. What’s your point?

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And the cafe across from my office is so bloody expensive that I never sit on Jackson’s face for long!

and yes, they have tip jars on the counter. Won’t give 'em a nickel, not at their prices.

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Hey, I will NOT have people badmouthing Amerigo!
[sub]Liberal, why do you hate Amerigo?[/sub]

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During the Soviet Union’s existence, according to Cecil, 62 million died through genocide. Stalin came in as history’s number 1, with 43 million to his credit. I just thought romanticized notions about dreams of the future by Soviet citizens seemed a bit ironic. I thought survivors would be a better word.

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Letter of Amerigo Vespucci, To Pier Soderini, Gonfalonier of the Republic of Florence

…and having armed ourselves as best we could, we advanced towards the shore, and they sought not to hinder us from landing, I believe from fear of the cannons: and we jumped on land, 57 men in four squadrons, each one (consisting of) a captain and his company: and we came to blows with them: and after a long battle (in which) many of them (were) slain, we put them to flight, and pursued them to a village, having made about 250 of them captives, and we burnt the village, and returned to our ships with victory and 250 prisoners, leaving many of them dead and wounded, and of ours there were no more than one killed and 22 wounded, who all escaped (i.e., recovered), God be thanked. We arranged our departure, and seven men, of whom five were wounded, took an island-canoe, and with seven prisoners that we gave them, four women and three men, returned to their (own) country full of gladness, wondering at our strength: and we thereon made sail for Spain with 222 captive slaves: and reached the port of Calis (Cadiz) on the 15th day of October, 1498, where we were well received and sold our slaves. Such is what befell me, most noteworthy, in this my first voyage.

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Well, a couple thousand more letters lke that and maybe he could be Stalin’s cabana boy.