RESULTS OF A POLL DONE BY THE PUBLIC OPINION FOUNDATION INDICATE THAT DESPITE THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS OF THE CPSU AND A DECADE OF REVELATIONS, 36% OF RESPONDENTS STILL BELIEVE THAT "ON BALANCE, JOSEF STALIN DID MORE GOOD THAN BAD FOR THE COUNTRY". WHY ARE WE STILL UNABLE TO DRIVE "AN IDEOLOGICAL STAKE" THROUGH THIS NATIONAL INFATUATION WITH "THE LEADER OF ALL TIMES AND PEOPLES"?
Question: How would you account for Stalin's continuing popularity with a relatively sizeable part of the population?
Sergei Markov: I'm certain that this is a protest reaction, nothing more. The non-critical evaluation of Stalin by a substantial part of society has nothing to do with any attempts to justify Stalin or his regime. I'd sooner describe it as an attempt to find some positives in our history. In the last few years, Russian citizens have displayed substantial dissatisfaction with the ideology of the past decade: the ideology that dismisses our post-1917 history as a chain of endless mistakes and defeats. The people are tired of self- loathing. They want patriotism. They want to be able to be proud of their country. There is nothing really wrong with this phenomenon; even though it can - and does - take various forms.
Question: The period of Stalin's rule was phenomenally long. Who was Stalin for Russia?
Sergei Markov: Just as in 1953, Russians are divided in their evaluations. Some Russians cried for joy on the day Stalin died; while others screamed from pain and their sense of loss. It was either one thing or the other; there were no indifferent Russians then. But now there are some who are indifferent. Opinion polls indicate that up to 30% of respondents don't care about Stalin, one way or the other. On the other hand, 29% of respondents consider him a murderous tyrant - to blame for the concentration camps, collectivization, the cult of personality, the "war on cosmopolitans"... These Russian blame Stalin for his advances to Hitler, which resulted in the nation being utterly unprepared for the war, and led to countless deaths of Soviet soldiers in the first months of the war.
The 36% of respondents who approve of Stalin associate his name with positive aspects of his rule, with achievements. Like the victory in the greatest war in history. And the economic boom... We cannot deny the undeniable - that under Stalin, our country, once an agrarian backwater of Europe, rose to the status of a leading world power.
This longing for an iron hand stems from the cowardice and unscrupulousness of the majority of modern politicians. Voters are tired of the weakness of state officials and their inability to solve a single problem. Many are attracted by another feature of the Stalin's regime - the availability of a powerful ideology (without any dissent), the readiness to go to the limit in pursuing party policy, despite criticism from the international community and resistance from enemies. That is a contrast with Russia's policy in the 1990s, right?
Question: In other words, if Stalin rose from the dead and ran for president, would he stand a chance?
Sergei Markov: I don't think so. I don't think that all the Russian citizens who praise Stalin in opinion polls would actually vote for him. The unparalleled cruelty of Stalin's regime and its absolute irrelevance to Russia nowadays are clear to our whole society. Stalin is something like a slogan, which some voters use to put pressure on the authorities, in order to stimulate those in power to pursue steadier and more independent policies.
Question: Do you think attitudes to Stalin will change when we have created a normal civil society in Russia and the people have decent real incomes?
Sergei Markov: When there are enough competent and independent politicians in Russia, Stalin's rating will drop. He may pass into the realm of legend then. Perhaps our descendants will remember him only by his pipe, mistaking him for Sherlock Holmes.