IRL 8, November 23, 2009

URL; http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-stalin2-2009nov02,0,2551543.story

This is an article from Los Angeles Times, written by Megan K. Stack on November 2, 2009. Titled "Russia reconsiders; Was Stalin Really So Bad?" this article outlines how in Russia today, people view their Soviet past and Stalin with nostalgia and that the late Soviet dictator is "enjoying a renaissance of sorts in Russia." An example of this in the article is the picture that goes with it, which is of a man who resembles Stalin dressed exactly like him, on an escalator on his way to Red Square, so that people can have their picture taken with him. Throughout the course of the article, several people were quoted, including one Russian man who stated the following;

"The same doctors, teachers, builders and steelworkers continue to live and work in the same country, and everything in our midst was built by the hands of people in the Soviet Union. The state changes, but the country remains the same."

Another man quoted in the article states that maybe the deaths of millions of people under Stalin could have been justified by some higher state goal. The article states that many now view Stalin in a way of "hazy nostalgia" and that after having portrayed him as negative ever since the USSR collapsed in the 1990s, now people are starting to reconsider whether or not he was really as bad as they had thought. This relates to what we're studying in class because we had recently learned that Stalin had a very charismatic personality and that people held him in high regard despite all that he did that wasn't good, and that he attained a godlike status and was celebrated, with images of him everywhere. It adds value because it demonstrates that even today, after many years have passed, this trend, to view Stalin as good and worthy of celebration, is returning. This is the reason why you'd have Russians reconsidering Stalin and how to view him, and why you'd have impersonators dress up as him so that people could have their picture taken with him. People are looking at Stalin with nostalgia and fonder memories, showing that the attraction to him has not completely gone away and is in fact returning. The limitation to this article that makes me highly skeptical is the fact that it quotes a select few people and shows a picture of a Stalin impersonator, leading one to believe that the majority of Russians are starting to think highly of Stalin. However, no poll was taken, and there is no way of determining whether or not the people quoted in the article were chosen to prove a point or even if their opinion is the minority one. There's not enough information to be 100% clear, but still enough sufficient evidence to determine that to SOME extent, people still see Stalin as a benefactor of the past.