Why the nostalgia about Stalin? -- Politics and Society in Russia and its Neighbors

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 15:21:44 01/28/02 Mon
Author: Nadia
Subject: Why the nostalgia about Stalin?

In class today there were quite a few people who didn't understand why some people still miss Stalin. There are various reasons and the answer is complex but I'd like to pose just a few explanations. It is important to note that going from a state where the totalitarian government has absolute control to the freedom that comes with democracy, causes some problems. Extremely rapid transitions from a totalitarian state to democracy invite chaos. In Stalin's day there might have been terror and few freedoms but at least people had something to hope for and live for. There was food in stores and people had jobs. The jobs may not have been dream jobs and the food may have not been magnificent but money was made and people were fed. Society was so-called classless and the vast majority of people had the same opportunity to get food and jobs. There was no room for competition and the common good of all was important. Individuality was stomped out but there was still some hope in follwing the government and the community. With the dawn of democracy and the end of the Codl War Russia underwent an extreme change. In rapid times of change there is much opportunity for corruption. Russia today may be democratic and have a million freedoms that it didn't during Stalin or the old regime, but life is not easy. Freedoms in a dmocratic state come with a price, especially in a land where absolute control has been the trend for as long as anyone can remember. Russia faces crime, corruption and poverty on a huge scale. The food that is in stores cannot be easily afforded, the streets are not all that safe to walk and the ability to move-around the world is not easily financed by the average salary.
So in Russia there may be a nostalgia for the old regime and even terrible Stalin for similar reasons that there is nostlagia for communist rule in other European Satellite states. I know this because I go back to my native Poland quite often. People may love their new democracy and the freedom but there are those who wish things were like the old days. This is not necessarily because they are such avid communists but because life was just easier. Like I mentioned before about Russia, in Poland there is food in stores, people can read whatever they wish and travel outside teh country but this comes with a price. There is a climbing unemployment rate, huge amounts of people live in poverty and there is high crime rate. It can easily be said that when the state controlled every sector, the general public's well being was somewhat taken care of. WHen in a democracy a state has a hard time keeping citizens safe, employed and well-fed, there are those who will want to go back to old regime days. Even if people live for a lie in a land, at least it is something. It is better for some to live for something regardless of hwo flawed then to live without hope of anything getting better for many years to come.
Further Russia has it much worse for the fact that it is sucha vast land with many ethnic groups. Many other old Eastern European satellite states may have it slightly easier for reasons such as commonalities in ethnicity, religion and a smaller area top govern. Russia has much potential but it will be difficult because it is quite a long tough journey to go from totalitarianism to democracy. Also corruption and crime do not make it easy. I read somewhere a while back that in Russia today the mafia influence if not control 40 percent of the Russian government. The figure may not be exact but it is evident that crime is a bad issue that Russia is facing today. In a nutshell I hope I was able to at least outline soem of the reasons why there are people still today who wish that Stalin's days could be brought back.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: Why the nostalgia about Stalin? (more) -- Alex Tollette, 19:56:59 01/29/02 Tue