Postcard to the west

On October 1, speaking at a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Vladimir Putin said that the Memorial “Wall of Sorrow” will appear in Moscow in memory of the victims of political repressions

The winner of the competition for the creation of the monument to the victims of political repressions was the project of George Frangulian "The Wall of Sorrow"
“This is one of the most bitter, heavy pages in Russian history. But it is no less instructive for us than the pages of victories and triumph, and requires objectivity and responsibility, because it brings an important lesson, the most important lesson in the current and all future generations, ”Putin formulated his vision of the problem.

The sudden appearance of Putin in the company of human rights activists with discussions about heavy pages and the need for a monument to the victims of the Stalinist repressions, it would seem, does not fit into the current agenda. Nevertheless, for some reason all this was needed-and it took it right now.

It is ridiculous to think that Putin’s fleeting touch to the topic of political repressions unprofitable for power is an attempt to give at least some trump cards to the unfinished “system liberals” so that they can go to their unsystematic comrades and say: look, not Stalinist, he personally said that heavy pages are a monument! That's what the opinion in the Kremlin has long been spit on, so on the opinion of all systemic and non -systemic liberals.

There are two rational versions. Perhaps this is the on-duty phenomenon of the highest power in one of the many of their hypostases, so that radical Stalinists and other ultra-sorelists still remember that Russia has no ideology except the one that the first person here and now. But this is somehow too poetic: the loyalist public and without reminders knows that you should always bend along with the party line and not ask questions.

If anyone Putin wanted to give a sign, so perhaps “our Western partners”. In the West, Comrade Stalin is much less popular than within Russia, and the public veneration of it as an “effective manager” does not create any additional opportunities for mutual understanding. Another thing is a slight hint that the Russian government is not at all as terrible as the liberal public screams and writes in its Pasquili. After all, the hint costs nothing, but it can bring at least a small one, but by improving the image: some analysts from the Western Think Tanks or frank lobbyists will not pass by and significantly emphasize that a completely liberal ruler is hiding under the mask of a non-stop, who speaks correctly and even personally participates in the creation of the monument to their victims. This, in turn, will give rise to new illusions regarding Putin and new opportunities for their operation for their own purposes, so everything is quite rational.

One is pleasing in this situation: a monument to the victims of political repression in Moscow will most likely appear. No matter how symbolic meaning the authors put into it, and even Putin himself, as a result, he will become a reminder of the descendants and the processes that went against the background of his installation, and about our time as a whole.

Photo: Gulag Museum