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In the view of Mikhail Barshchevskiy, a lawyer and former leader of the Civil Force party, [Iosif Stalin] was a "criminal" and "power-hungry oppressor". He described the Stalinist era as "the most nightmarish period" in the history of his state, and said that he was afraid that Russia may repeat this mistake. He argued that the "ideology of suppression" which reigned during Stalin's rule was counter-productive, and said that states can only prosper in an atmosphere of close cooperation.
The 26 October edition of the weekly political discussion programme "Honest Monday" on Russian Gazprom-owned NTV, hosted by regular presenter Sergey Minayev, examined what role the memory of former Soviet leader Iosif Stalin should play for contemporary Russia.
The programme invited viewers to answer the question: "Who is Stalin for you?" According to the results of the poll in which 37,000 votes were cast, 61 per cent of viewers consider him a hero, 32 per cent think that he was a criminal, and 7 per cent view him as an effective manager.
Aleksandr Prokhanov, a writer and editor-in-chief of the ultranationalist newspaper Zavtra, spent the entire programme praising the achievements of Stalin. In his view, "for Russia Stalin means a great past, victory in 1945, and the hope that Russia will escape the nightmares" that it has endured since 1991. He argued that a new Stalin would save Russia from all its current social problems, and emphasized that the country needs "a Russian leader" (vozhd in vernacular). He said that he could envisage "a time when we will again see the resurrection of the great leader".
Sergey Kurginyan, a political scientist and president of the international public foundation Experimental Creative Centre, described Stalin as a "tragic hero who combines the terrible and the great". He reacted angrily throughout the programme to Minayev's attempts to challenge his apparent support for the Stalinist past. In his view, current support for Stalin represents "a desire to escape the idiocy that the country was forced into" in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also became enraged at the suggestion that Stalin could be compared to Hitler.
In the view of Mikhail Barshchevskiy, a lawyer and former leader of the Civil Force party, Stalin was a "criminal" and "power-hungry oppressor". He described the Stalinist era as "the most nightmarish period" in the history of his state, and said that he was afraid that Russia may repeat this mistake. He argued that the "ideology of suppression" which reigned during Stalin's rule was counter-productive, and said that states can only prosper in an atmosphere of close cooperation.
Leonid Polyakov, a political scientist, said that Stalin is a "symbol of a historical era without which modern-day Russia is unthinkable", describing him as both a criminal hero and heroic criminal. He said he was in favour of restoring monuments to Stalin in the Moscow metro. However, he emphasized that it was anachronistic to have Stalin as Russia's image in the 21st century, and was certain that Russia would not be able to progress if it attempts to build its future on Stalin's memory.
Credit: NTV Mir, Moscow, in Russian 1820 26 Oct 09
NTV Mir, Moscow, in Russian 1820 26 Oct 09/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC