Re: Why the nostalgia about Stalin? (more) -- Politics and Society in Russia and its Neighbors

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Date Posted: 19:56:59 01/29/02 Tue
Author: Alex Tollette
Subject: Re: Why the nostalgia about Stalin? (more)
In reply to: Nadia 's message, "Why the nostalgia about Stalin?" on 15:21:44 01/28/02 Mon

I was thinking today and I came up with a scenario that I think can help people have an understanding as to why anyone living in the former Soviet Union states would have a sort of nostalgia for the Stalin era, or just communism in general.

I would liken the people who were living in the USSR during Stalin's time and the nearly 40 years of communism after to individuals in prison. That sounds kind of obvious, I know, but it's a comparison that extends beyond the self-evident. Prison, although no tropical paradise, offers stability and order to those who are institutionalized within it. It may not be fun, or free, or easy, but it's certainly familiar. Sure there were threats and awful experiences to be had, but after a while one knew the warning signs and how to protect oneself. But there was a routine, a constant, a knowing/assurance that one was going to be provided for, and an overall way of life. Often times, when individuals leave prison the freedom, unpredictability, instability, etc. of life on "the outside" can make them long for the familiarity of prison life, and even commit more crimes in order to return to that familiar place, regardless of how awful it was. (See "The Shawshank Redepmtion" for a better demostration of this.)

The parallel struck me when I was reading "Lenin's Tomb" and at the end of Chapter 10 a classmate of Gorbachev's said, upon hearing of Stalin's death, "What are we going to do now?" Likewise, I'm sure many echoed his sentiments at the fall of the Soviet Union. It's about a longing for stability, familiarity, and assurance, even if the subject of those things seems an extremely undesirable existence.

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