Russian Youth: Stalin Good, Migrants Must Go: Poll

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's youths admire Soviet dictator Josef Stalin -- who presided over the deaths of millions of people -- and want to kick immigrants out of Russia, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

The poll, carried out by the Yuri Levada Centre, was presented by two U.S. academics who called it "The Putin Generation: the political views of Russia's youth".

When asked if Stalin was a wise leader, half of the 1,802 respondents, aged from 16 to 19, agreed he was.

"Fifty-four percent agreed that Stalin did more good than bad," said Theodore Gerber, a sociologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Forty-six percent disagreed with the statement that Stalin was a cruel tyrant."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSL2559010520070725

[jpgray]

1. Wait, thought Stalin was "wise" or "did more good than bad?"

Based on Russia at present, it's no real surprise that people want to believe that parts of the Soviet era were "the good ol' days," when Russia had lots of land and international respect/fear. Either way, it's a wrongheaded way to think, obviously.

[msongs]

2. these stalin lovers would be the first sent to the camps if stalin came back lol nt

[MikeNearMcChord]

3. And considering that Stalin was not an Russian

but a Georgian, would he be kicked out also?

[LeftishBrit]

4. Scary...

I suppose with all the problems that they've been having lately it's tempting to want to go back to some mythical time in the past when the Soviet Union was a Great Superpower with a Great Leader. (At least, that's how the myth is likely to be spun.)

There seem to be a lot of illiberal, xenophobic attitudes in Russia at the moment, with both Stalin-nostalgia and Neo-Nazism having more influence than they should.

[JVS]

5. Of course he did more good than bad. Russians were better off in 1953 than 30 years before.

The bad dictator leaves his country in rubble.

The good dictator leaves his country electrified, industrialized, has crushed historically hostile neighbors, has acquired nuclear weapons to defend the country against the other superpower, has increased life expectancy, has eliminated the plow of wood for the tractor. The correct answer is that he was both a wise leader and a cruel tyrant.

[Alexander]

6. How many of the "Russian youth" remember 1953?

I'm guessing zero.

Stalin was one of the most evil motherfuckers to walk the earth, up there with Hitler and Pol Pot.

[JVS]

9. Do you remember 1953, or just what our ruling class tells you about the man who threatened their...

standing most at that time?

[knight_of_the_star]

7. I would say was just plain bad

Considering that while he did good things for his people this was more a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, the modernization was aimed at making Russia a modern military power for the sake of the state not the people.

[JVS]

11. your logic is circular

You claim that he is bad, so that lets you know that his motives for even the things that went well were bad. If Stalin just wanted to be a mean SOB, there would have been easier ways for him to fulfill his desire for nastiness than signing up with the Bolsheviks during the Czarist regime.

[Socal31]

15. Wow, this is a new one....

a Stalin apologist! Go do some "independent" research on the man you are defending....he was a huge steaming pile of dictorial dog sh*t.

[krispos42]

8. Stalin's paranoia gutted the Red Army and let Hitler invade Russia

Stalin purged all the competent officers out of the Red Army because his of his paranoia. A competent officer that had the loyalty of the soldiers was a threat to his power, so they were sent off to the gulag.

And Stalin absolutely refused to see any malice from Hitler after they signed the non-aggression treaty in 1939 or 1940. Hitler was flying reconaissance planes all over the border of the western USSR, mapping the terrain and such, and Stalin just explained it away.

Now, only Stalin had the iron will to throw back Hitler once the Nazis were on the march. But the invasion only happened in the first place and only worked as well as it did (they got within sight of Moscow) BECAUSE Stalin was unprepared and the officer core was filled with mediocre loyalists instead of capable patriots. And so they had to try to repel the Nazis with sheer numbers instead of strategy and tactics. Twenty-three million Soviets died defeating the Nazis as a result.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

[Thothmes]

16. Competent Officer

I would stop short of calling General Zhukov, or General Koniev mediocre. These men were the equals of any Generals in the German Army, or the Armies of the Western Allies.

[krispos42]

17. I speak in generalities. I do not aim to minimize honored officers on either side.

Zhukov certainly had plenty of fruit salad on his uniform! :-)

[hatrack]

10. Yes, but he was a "strong leader" - in fact, a "popular wartime dictator"

:eyes:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Ages 16-19, which means they don't remember anything before

the breakup of the Soviet Union. They grew up in a decrepit, demoralized country with high rates of poverty, crime, unemployment, drug use, and AIDS as well as a destroyed social safety net.

I suppose they listen to their grandparents saying, "Stalin would never have tolerated these criminals. Under Stalin we had full employment. Under Stalin we didn't have much but nobody had to sell their furniture to survive."

Under such circumstances, it's easy to imagine that Stalin's era was some sort of Golden Age.

[libnnc]

13. I remember hearing a story on the BBC

a couple of years ago about a popular museum exhibit in Moscow that showcased some of the Stalin-era propaganda images and art work. They interviewed the crowds at the museum -- most weren't born before 1965 and had no concept of what life was like before the "thaw". Astonishingly, those questioned were in awe of the iconic-like images of Stalin and longed for that period of time.

To them, the exhibit represented a successful, productive era and Stalin was a "father figure" -- a protector of sorts. They had absolutely no knowledge of the purges, the insanity of it (especially its randomness -- just out of the blue people disappeared).

These young people, quite literally, admired the image of Stalin. They were completely ignorant of the insanity that accompanied those images.

[THUNDER HANDS]

14. I wouldn't use the term good in any context to describe Stalin

I'd say he was competent. Whereas a dictator like Kim Jong Ill is incompetent based on the shape of his country.

[JI7]

18. a lot of people in Russia are depressed at the moment

the young people probably have no hope and it probably makes them feel better to think the older days were better and to view certain figures who were big in those days as heroic.

i'm not sure what needs to happen. Putin sucks. if Yeltson wasn't a drunk maybe he could have been able to do more good.

it might be similar(though not on the same level) as the idiots in America who think the 50s were such great days.