Observing the Anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s Death

By Slava Tsukerman

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. For many years this date was commemorated in Russia only by a small obscure group of devoted Stalinists. This year though commemoration of the Stalin’s death became an event widely discussed in the Russian media.

In the morning of March 5th, a long line of people holding bunches of red carnations formed in the Moscow Red Square. The line moved to the grave of Joseph Stalin near the Kremlin wall.

Many Russians couldn’t believe that this action was a spontaneous manifestation of the Muscovites’ love for Stalin. The Internet commentators of the event paid special attention to the size of the carnations bunches carried by many people in the line. Carnations cost a fortune in March in Moscow. Only extremely wealthy people could afford such bunches.

Besides it was difficult to explain why everybody in the line brought absolutely similar flowers. Many commentators believed that the line was organized and flowers provided by some organization and the bouquets happened to be extremely big because much less people than was expected took part in the action.

Some commentators thought that the action was organized by the Russian Communist Party, some thought that it was done by the government.

The theory that Putin is taking Stalin as his role model is very popular today.

One typical example: Ukrainian writer Yuri Vinnichuk expressed opinion that the sensational action with the laying of flowers to the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s monument was established on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wanted to show the world that the Russians want a strong leader as the head of state.

On March 5, Russian Internet eagerly reposted a photo of Putin and Medvedev supposedly bringing flowers to Stalin’s monument.

Several days later the creator of this image reported in the Internet (http://burckina-faso.livejournal.com/1471544.html):

“The popularity of the fake photo of Putin, allegedly putting flowers to Stalin’s monument, shows how Russian society today perceives the attitude of the present regime to the historical figure of Stalin. I was struck by a huge number of people who believed this picture of Putin carrying flowers to the wall with the words ‘Stalin’, created by me in Photoshop, even though in the real picture he laid flowers to monument of Yeltsin.”

Readers’ comments to this publication showed that many of the modern Stalin’s sympathizers don’t like Putin. Here is one of the typical comments:

“Stalin, if he would have been alive, would have shot Mr. Putin and his ‘gang’ several years ago for the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country and the collapse of Russian industry, manufacturing, agriculture, science, culture, education, medicine, police; for the total corruption; for breeding of oligarchs, for legalization of criminals in the government and so on.”

Among the subjects actively discussed in the Russian Internet there is a question of so-called “de-Stalinization”. Just four years ago Dmitri Medvedev, then President of Russia had been calling on Russians to finally accomplish de-Stalinization of Russian society, which unfortunately hadn’t been done at the time of Perestroika. Many of today’s commentators are drawing attention to the change that took place since then in the Russian society. Some of them even trying to present Medvedev as an enemy of Russian people, and to present Putin as a leader who had turned Russia back to its traditional values which are shared by most of Russians.

Here is a quote from the editorial (http://www.odnako.org/blogs/destalinizaciya-chetire-goda-spustya-manifest-istoricheskih-neudachnikov/) published on the web site of the publishing group Odnako that, besides the web site, includes a magazine, a publishing house and a political program on the the Russian National Channel One TV:

“Let’s call a spade a spade. Actually, if someone has forgotten, ‘de-Stalinization’ is the ideology of national humiliation and historic defeat. And at that time it was the dominant ideological mind set. The dominant. Just four years ago.

“Yes, four years ago, as well as today, it was the ideology of marginal minorities. But these minorities then appeared big and menacing; they ruled from television screens, from high offices, they were equipped with technologies, institutions, ‘respected personalities’ and support of ‘the civilized West’.

“But they, these minorities were dangerous not because of their strength. They were strong because our country regarded itself as ideologically weak, disoriented, disappointed, lost.”

Therefore, from the point of view of modern Russian imperialists, Putin is the leader who brought back the “values” of the Stalin’s time.

Many of the members of anti–Putin opposition share the same belief. On March 5th, in one of Moscow central locations near the Poveletskij Railroad Station, appeared a poster depicting Stalin’s death mask with the description: “That one had died, this one will die too”. Every Russian understands, that by “this one”, Putin is meant.