As many as 70% of Russians take a favourable view of Joseph Stalin’s role in the history of the country; almost 50% are ready to justify Stalinist purges, a recent survey by Moscow-based Yuri Levada Analytical Center shows. According to sociologists, such a rating of Stalin is record high.
‘What role did Stalin play in the life of the country?’ That was the question put by Levada Center. 18% of respondents chose the answer ‘very positive’, 52% – ‘rather positive’, 14% – ‘rather negative’, 5% – very negative; 11% were undecided.
Reviewing the results of the opinion poll, Levada Center has stated that 70% of Russians gave an upbeat assessment of the Soviet dictator’s activity.
“Our desire to stick together makes us look for such unifying symbols. Stalin s the only figure (if we talk about historical persons) who is suitable for this role. Well, except for Putin,” Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at Levada-Center, says.
According to him, his ‘consolidating’ role is associated to the victory in the Second World War. The growth of Stalin’s popularity may also be attributed to the current drastic impoverishment, which is hardly in evidence in Belarus, a number of experts stress.
In the Levada Center’s survey of March 2018, 29% of respondents showed respect to Stalin, 9% – liking and 2% – adoration. 31% said they had an indifferent attitude towards him. 12% demonstrated negative feelings (hostility, fear and aversion).
Over the past years, no public opinion polls concerning Stalin have been conducted in Belarus. In 2015-2016, Pew Research Center interviewed residents of Eastern European countries; among other questions, they were expected to answer whether Joseph Stalin or Mikhail Gorbachev had played a better role in the world history:
Stalin vs. Gorbachev (%):
Belarus: 26 – 36
Estonia: 9 – 56
Russia: 58 – 22
Romania: 29 – 47
Georgia: 57 – 18
In Belarus, only a quarter of respondents spoke in praise of Stalin; and it should be recalled that the KGB archives are still closed in our country.
“I know the Soviet leaders; Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin are the symbol of our nation,” president Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in 2006.
A year earlier, the head of Belarus opened the Stalin Line museum complex. A Belsat TV crew spent half an hour doing a man-on-the-street interview in Minsk, but they did not meet a single person who spoke well of the dictator:
“I know that the cult of Stalin is being restored at the moment. But it will do no good. ”
“Stalin’s role? Terrible.”
“Stalin is a tyrant. He was a man who cannot be called a man.”
“Dictators seem to be oddity in any society.”
Attempts to whitewash Stalin do not find an echo in the hearts of the majority of Belarusians, because the country remembers the repressions that affected each and every family, historian Ihar Kuznyatsou believes.
“The authorities’ recent actions – taking down Kurapaty crosses and others – result in more negative assessments of Stalin; even those who did not know who Stalin was start to think poor of him,” he stressed.
Therefore, according to the historian, pro-Stalin sentiment will be decreasing in Belarus with every passing year. However, the same cannot be said for Russia.
Belsat.eu
