Laughter and the 20 million

Russians embrace their old Uncle
JoeMark Franchetti, Moscow March 08, 2005

SMARTLY dressed in suit and tie, the young lawyer cut an incongruous figure as he was borne through the streets of Moscow alongside crowds of impoverished pensioners in a red sea of hammer-and-sickle flags.Although several decades younger than most of those around him, Yuri Vassilyev, 33, was happy to admit to their common cause: a fondness for Joseph Stalin, the dictator whose purges are blamed by Western historians for the deaths of up to 20 million Soviet citizens. "Look, everyone makes mistakes," Mr Vassilyev said. "Stalin wasn't a saint, but he was a great man who built up a strong state. "After years of lies about him, the truth is coming out. We owe a lot to him. He turned the Soviet Union into a superpower that was feared and respected. A man like Stalin is what Russia needs now." Increasing numbers of Mr Vassilyev's countrymen are taking a similarly sepia-tinged view of the dictator in the run-up to May's 60th anniversary of his finest moment, the defeat of Nazi Germany. Once dismissed as the rabid opinions of a few eccentrics and elderly nostalgics, statements glorifying Stalin can now be heard among those born long after his death in 1953. At least three Russian cities have announced plans to erect monuments marking his war record – almost half a century since they were torn down in a program of de-Stalinisation initiated by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev.
A recent poll found that 50 per cent of Russians consider Stalin a "wise leader", while one in four say they would vote for him if he were standing for office today.