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Russians Are Asked To Choose A Personality To Symbolise Russia. Guess Who The First Choice Is

July 13, 2008


The Russian television station, Rossiya, is running a nationwide poll at the moment in order to select a famous personality from the past or present who would best reflect the essence of Russia as a nation. The organisers of the poll, which is conducted under the title Name For Russia, are asking respondents to pick a personality who would symbolise what Russia stands for and what it’s all about. In September the 12 names that receive the most votes will be discussed at a live TV debate and the winner will be then selected.   Hundreds of thousands of people have already taken part in the poll. And guess who is topping the list of contenders for the Name For Russia? It is Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Yes, nearly 17 years after the collapse of communism in Russia the name of a ruthless psychopath, who had turned the country into one big labour camp, is still considered by many people to be worthy of being a symbol of the nation.

Third in the list is Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, who founded the Soviet State. The top ten also includes the famous actor and singer Vladimir Vysotsky, Tsar Nicholas II, the poet Sergei Esenin, the first man in space Yuri Gagarin and Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

But it is the first choice, of course, that best reflects what is happening in today’s Russia. After so much information has been revealed about the horrendous crimes committed by Joseph Stalin and his henchmen hundreds of thousands of people still seem to think that he was a great leader and that his name should symbolise Russia. It is frightening to imagine that these people are prepared to ignore the basic facts of history just because they feel nostalgic for the times when Russia as part of the Soviet Union was seen as a superpower and a mighty adversary of the West. You may assume, of course, that the people who voted for Stalin are mostly old or at least middle aged. But in fact most of the respondents taking part in the poll are relatively young. Which, in my opinion, makes the result even more worrying.

The same, be the way, applies to the choice of Vladimir Lenin. Long gone are the days when his name was associated with everything that was great in Russia. Even before the collapse of communism, during Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika, Lenin’s role in Russian history had been reappraised. He was revealed to have been a bloody tyrant who initiated a campaign of genocide when millions of Russians were slaughtered just because they were seen as enemies of the socialist idea. Lenin, by the way, was the man who invented the concept of labour camps, where people were forced to work for nothing and died slowly of hardships or torture. The Nazis copied the idea for their concentration camps from Lenin. And Stalin, as history teaches us, has been nothing else but a true follower of Lenin and implemented his evil ideas into practice. Some latest estimates put the numbers of victims of the communist regime in Russia as high as 60 million. Just think about it: sixty million people were killed or died in labour camps under Lenin and Stalin!

And yet, despite all the facts and evidence which have been revealed there are still many people in Russia who are prepared to ignore the crimes of Stalin and Lenin and even choose them as symbols of Russia. The nostalgia for greatness seems to overshadow all other considerations. I would even say that this strange longing for so-called for the imperial past seems to go against common sense itself.

Even more worrying is the fact that the official propaganda in Russia is quite openly fuelling the nostalgia for Russia’s past greatness. The Kremlin spin doctors are unashamedly peddling the idea that Russia can become strong again if people resort to good old fashioned Soviet type devotion to their leaders and support any opportunistic adventure that they might feel inclined to undertake. If you look at the way Russia is treating its neighbours you would realise that Soviet imperialism is alive and well. And the way the West is portrayed as the sworn enemy of Russia does strongly resemble the times of Lenin and Stalin.

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev are, of course, no Stalins and Lenins. Their ideology is much simpler: protect the interests of the elite at any cost and not forget about their own cut. But in order to survive they need to manipulate the public opinion and appeal to the Soviet mentality of people which has withstood the test of time and is still running strong. It is a dangerous game that can backfire on Russia and the whole world.

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