In , after Stalin's death, came a watershed moment: Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the Stalin personality cult and dictatorship, in a secret speech to the 20th Party Congress.
That led to a temporary thaw in political repression, as thousands of prisoners were freed from Stalin's labour camps. But in the following decades the Soviet authorities covered up the true scale of Stalin's crimes. Dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn chronicled the harsh regime in Stalin's Gulag camps, and was persecuted for it.
Many Russians were shocked to learn the truth in the late s, when former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev lifted the veil on Stalinism, with his "glasnost" openness policy. Stalinism's excesses left deep scars across Eastern Europe, where many people still revile him for communist-era brutality and intolerance. According to Levada's research, in the early s Russian opinion was roughly balanced between those pro- and anti-Stalin. In most respondents had a neutral attitude towards Stalin.
But since , across all age groups, the proportion of those with favourable opinions on Stalin has risen steadily. Stalin is seen as the main figure who defeated fascism, who gets the honours for victory in the Great Patriotic War. And that war victory is a symbol of national pride for all Russians, even for those born in the post-Soviet period.
Among the strong long list are a range of names, from Tsars and aristocrats to the Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin, via composers, poets and artists. It will be whittled down to 12, with the winner announced in December. Vladimir Lavrov, a history professor at the Institute of Russian History, was given the task of selecting the candidates.
He said there were some figures who "couldn't be seen as a symbol of the country, such as Lavrenty Beria". Beria was one of Stalin's cruellest henchmen. It is not known who is leading the vote, but Stalin's popularity among a certain section of the population makes it quite possible that he will make the strong shortlist, and perhaps the final But he faces stiff competition. Peter the Great, who founded St Petersburg, is likely to win a lot of support.
The clever money would be on the poet Alexander Pushkin. Although he died in his 30s, Pushkin is by far the most popular Russian literary figure, with streets, squares and cities bearing his name. Every Russian schoolchild can recite at least a few verses of his poetry, and as the popular Russian saying goes: "Pushkin is our everything.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Our young people are not interested in history and they don't like Stalin.
That brings up an important point: Young people in Russia don't really think much of anything about Stalin. The Carnegie poll found that to year-olds were "almost twice as likely not to care about Stalin one way or another" as those who were 55 or older.
Lev Kudkov, one of the authors of the study, is troubled by a population that feels increasingly positive or indifferent about Stalin, mainly because another Russian strongman might be learning lessons from him:. Vladimir Putin's Russia of needs symbols of authority and national strength, however controversial they may be, to validate the newly authoritarian political order.
Stalin, a despotic leader responsible for mass bloodshed but also still identified with wartime victory and national unity, fits this need for symbols that reinforce the current political ideology. As another author of the Carnegie report, Maria Lipman, gracefully points out, despite being buried in Moscow, "Stalin is not dead. Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer Feature. Others have even more bizarre reasons for admiring him: A surprisingly large number of Russians even believe that Stalin had mystical powers.
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