Ghoul's birthday

“We invite everyone for whom Stalin remains the Father, the Generalissimo, the leader of the working people, the builder of socialism, who created a powerful superpower - the USSR, which was feared and respected throughout the world”... No, this is not an article in a jingoistic newspaper with a circulation of 999 copies, not a leaflet published by former members of the existing CPSU. These are lines from the appeal of young St. Petersburg communists - intelligent, quite opposition-minded guys who yesterday organized an action on the banks of the Neva in honor of the 129th anniversary of Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Stalin was actually born not on December 21, but on the 6th according to the old style - therefore, on the 18th according to the new style; and not in 1879, but a year earlier (and, in theory, his 130th anniversary should have been celebrated on Thursday). In any case, this is what famous scientists write. But dates are a myth, a convention; the essence of an unusual flash mob is much more real - here, today, now.
Throughout the day, people came and came to the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station with fresh flowers in their hands. They went down the escalator or got off the train onto the platform, looked for a bas-relief depicting Lenin speaking and Stalin standing next to him, and laid down their bouquets. “There should be as many flowers as possible in order to attract people’s attention to this memorable date,” the organizers warned.
The semantic load of the action was not deciphered, and, to tell the truth, we thought that there was some kind of catch hidden in all this: at the end of the curtain, the masks would be thrown off, and the lobby, one of the masterpieces of the Soviet subway, would be filled with echoing Homeric laughter... After talking with the organizers, all that remained was to dispel our illusions: all the letters and commas in the fiery appeal were placed strictly in their places, and jokes and the witticisms, as it turned out, were inappropriate.
It’s too late to be surprised, it’s pointless to be indignant, there seems to be nothing to judge... Why, where and why now - each of the respondents with whom we immediately contacted answered these questions very differently. (It seems, not least for himself).
And we will celebrate the officially recognized 130th anniversary of the leader in a year...

Valeria STRELNIKOVA
Photo by Mikhail MASLENNIKOV

Direct speech
Georgy LOSEV, DSPA activist:
“I’m only glad that young people are active.” True, it seems strange to me that they chose this form - they are not dealing with social problems, but commemorating Stalin...
I myself have an ambivalent attitude towards this politician. On the one hand, given the historical conditions that existed then, I don’t know what other decisions could have been made as the head of state. On the other hand, what he did - I just can’t evaluate it positively. These are terrible crimes and they have greatly discredited the communist movement around the world.
It is unlikely that I will participate in this action; at most, if possible, I would come to see how law enforcement officers will react to it. Of course, there is no violation of the law in putting flowers, but you yourself know how it usually happens with us - they can be pulled by the ears and accused of anything...
Direct speech
Leonid ROMANKOV, human rights activist:
“This is blasphemous and can only mean one thing: fear in the genotype of a Russian person has overcome all other feelings. Chanting the executioner is a phenomenon described in many scientific works: when fear becomes higher than everything else, it turns into love.
Fear has not yet been eliminated; it remains the prevailing feeling. To imagine, by analogy, that the Germans will have a big holiday on Hitler’s birthday is unthinkable for Germany. For Russia, unfortunately, it is conceivable.
I hope at least that a small number of people will take part in this action... Now the population is being zombied, assessments of democratic gains are being revised. This is beneficial to the authorities, since the whitewashing and glorification of the dictatorship is adequate to their current tasks, the processes of the revival of authoritarianism (not yet totalitarianism)... The atmosphere that is being whipped up through the government media is aimed at this. Just as Stalin at one time raised Ivan the Terrible to his shield, so today Putin and company are trying to make Stalin an “effective manager” and cover up those crimes, turn a blind eye to the mass genocide that he carried out against his own people. This is especially needed by the authorities now, during a crisis, when there are only two ways and one must choose: tightening or liberalization.
I would like to believe that through failure, default, and impoverishment, we will still come to liberalization. Because the second path is only into the abyss.
Direct speech
Vasily Krivonos, activist of the FSM and the “Save Leningrad” movement:
“Naturally, young communists cannot ignore this event and remain indifferent. The essence of the event is that we invite all residents who care about the personality of Joseph Vissarionovich - regardless of how they feel about him - to honor the memory of a man, a leader who made an undeniable contribution to the development of our country. And he was a significant figure in the fate of our city - especially during the days of the October Revolution... Of course, both in thoughts and in actions, Stalin was a very versatile person. And they treat him differently. Some people love and respect him because he built socialism, others because he was able to take a dilapidated country and turn it into a powerful superpower... He is considered a deep patriot who was devoted to his homeland.
Direct speech
Alexander OSTROVSKY, historian, author of the scientific and biographical book “Who stood behind Stalin”:
— Any person has the right to celebrate the event that he considers important to himself. If there are people who consider it necessary to celebrate Stalin’s birthday, they have exactly the same right to do so as I or anyone else to protest against it. If we stand on the position of democracy, of course.
I personally am not a fan of Stalin, his methods, the techniques that he used in politics. But he is, of course, an outstanding historical figure - with pros and cons. Why is the attitude towards Stalin changing now? I think for one simple reason: for the last twenty years we have seen a policy of destruction. A huge empire, the largest in the world, has been destroyed; the economy, education, science were destroyed... Hence, people have a very natural desire to turn towards other historical figures - who did not destroy, but created. Let's say, the industry that is destroyed today - the foundations were laid before the revolution, but industrialization was completed precisely in the Stalin era...
In general, from the point of view of what is included in the history of our state, we have two great figures: Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin. In my opinion, both of them are unsympathetic individuals, both “fought barbarism with barbaric methods”... At the same time, we must not forget that the leader who created a totalitarian state is responsible both for all the troubles and tragedies, and for all the positive things that were done under him.
By writing a book about this man, I rehabilitated him to some extent, because I proved that he was not an secret police agent. At the same time, Stalin's fans treat me very negatively. As far as I know, at least in certain Georgian circles, my work was received negatively. I tried to send my book to the Georgian Republican Library, to the university, I talked with the director of the presidential archive, with the consul, with the head of the community in St. Petersburg - everyone refused. The pre-revolutionary path of the leader in this work does not look, let’s say, in bright colors, since there were different pages in his biography... From this I can conclude that in Georgia Stalin continues to be idealized.


Meanwhile
Yesterday, a rally organized by the communists took place on the square near the Finland Station. Initially, this action was planned on Moskovskaya Square, but the authorities did not approve the site in the south of the city, and the organizers did not challenge the refusal.
The action, which according to the organizing committee was supposed to attract up to ten thousand protesting citizens, attracted at most five hundred people, mainly representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Russian Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and the SCM. Among the event participants were activists from the United Action Committee, Polustrov, Okhtinskaya Duga, the Association of Small and Medium Business Entrepreneurs, the Left Front, FSM, AKM, the Movement of Civil Initiatives, the Union trade union, and the Let's Save Leningrad group. Almost all the speeches in one way or another related to the economic crisis and its consequences; one of the speakers recalled the struggle to preserve the historical appearance of St. Petersburg, two spoke about Stalin’s birthday.