PODCAST: Why Stalin Remains Popular in Parts of Former Soviet Union (theworld.org)

Photo: REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili)

(theworld.org) Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was one of the most murderous dictators of the 20th century. During his 30 year rule, tens of millions of Soviet citizens were arrested, deported, or executed. And yet a new survey of Russians and other ex-Soviets finds that far from being reviled, Stalin is widely admired, six decades after his death. That’s especially true in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
Tom De Waal, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says Stalin is a figure not just of the past, but of the present.

“He’s very much there in the heads of the people all across what’s the former Soviet Union,” – which is why the Carnegie Endowment commissioned this survey on attitudes towards the dead dictator.

De Waal says support for Stalin, who died 60 years ago this week, has actually increased since the end of the Soviet Union. While Russians acknowledge that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people, a majority say, more importantly, he saved the Soviet people from Nazi Germany.

That’s Russia.

But how is Stalin viewed in Georgia? After all, the most powerful dictator in Russian history was a cobbler’s son from Georgia. Traveling around Georgia, De Waal says he noticed pictures of Stalin everywhere. Yet until now, no one had ever commissioned a poll on attitudes towards Stalin in Georgia.

De Waal says they found that a whopping 45 percent of Georgians have a positive view of Stalin, “which is really quite shocking to anyone who knows Stalin as one of the great murderers of the 20th century.”
Only 20 percent had an unfavorable view of him.

“And he was really very cruel in Georgia, especially,” says Lasha Bakradze, director of the Georgian State Museum of Literature in Tbilisi.

Even though he’s Georgian, Bakradze was also taken aback to discover that so many of his countrymen admire Stalin.

“On one side, we like democracy, but on the other, we say Stalin wasn’t such a bad guy. It makes no sense.”
Bakradze says this kind of thinking is common in post-Soviet countries.

“People don’t see the big problem. They say, on one side he was killing many people, he was a butcher, but on the other side, okay, he was a big personality and somehow we like him.”

Bakradze thinks that for Georgians, this has nothing to do with nostalgia for Soviet times, nor is it a fondness for dictators.

“They are somehow proud of Stalin because he was a Georgian, and this mass murderer is a famous Georgian outside of Georgia.”

Bakradze teaches a college course on Soviet history, and he’s amazed at how little his students actually know about Georgia’s most famous — or infamous — son.

After Stalin’s death, Nikita Khrushchev denounced the crimes of his predecessor in a secret speech to Communist party officials in l956. Khrushchev also tore down all statues of Stalin, and erased his name from streets and towns across the Soviet Union.

But Stalin never really disappeared from Soviet Georgia. His childhood home in the town of Gori became something of a shrine, with a 20-foot bronze statue of him nearby.

Three years ago, Georgia’s pro-western President Mikheil Saakashvili had the statue taken down. Bakradze thought it was a bad idea, and spoke out against it.

“I think before we take down the monument,” he says, “we have to have a big discussion of Stalin period and Soviet period in Georgian history, which we haven’t ever had.”

Georgian President Saakashvili could have started that conversation, says Tom De Waal of the Carnegie Endowment, but he didn’t.

“Funnily enough, it’s exactly what Khrushchev did 50 years before, when he in the middle of night took Stalin out of the mausoleum in Red Square where he was lying next to Lenin. People woke up the next morning, and Stalin was gone. Saakashvili did the exact same thing in Gori. He took down the big Stalin statue. No public consultation.”

De Waal says that isn’t proper de-Stalinization.

“It’s removing the symptoms of Stalin, but it’s not removing the real Stalin from people’s minds.”
After the statue came down, there was a huge backlash. Now there’s a plan to put the statue back up, but just down the street.

Lasha Bakradze says Georgia, and other post Soviet countries, need to regain their historical memory.
“I think many, many problems which we have are problems coming from the Soviet times, problems of building democracy, independent thinking, and son on. And when we know better about Soviet times we will understand ourselves better. And we can solve these problems maybe easier than we are doing now.”
Stalin’s life and legacy would be a good place to start.
 

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In 2005, The World’s Patrick Cox visited Stalin’s home town of Gori (now in Georgia). Since then, the Georgian government has pulled down a statue of Stalin in Gori’s main square. But some local are as pro-Stalin as ever.




Read more:

• The World: 20 Years After the Soviet Collapse
• ABC News/AP: Russia Marks 60th Anniversary of Stalin's Death
• The World: Nostalgia for the Soviet Union
• Huffington Post: Stalin's Death Remembered In Russia On 60th Anniversary Of Dictator's Passing

CALL: Study Abroad Course in the Caucasus (crdcgmu.wordpress.com)

Today I received this letter for a call for student prgramms in Feorgia (Tbilisi) ...

I always enjoy reading your blog and following the latest events in the South Caucasus. My name is Bram Houben and I am a recent graduate of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Throughout my studies I have focused on the South Caucasus and worked on several projects in the region.

At the moment, I'm working together with one of my professors to provide other students the exciting opportunity to participate in a study abroad course that will take place in Tbilisi next summer. To truly reach students worldwide I would like to ask you, if at all possible, to share this exciting announcement on your blog.

Please click on this link for more information about the course or visit crdc.gmu.edu.

I would really appreciate the opportunity to share this course with your blog audience.
Thank you so much and please let me know if you have any questions or if you want me to compose a specific posting to put on your blog.

Sincerely,
Bram Houben
Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC)
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution George Mason University
Office Phone: (703) 993-4473
Office Fax: (703) 993-1302
crdc.gmu.edu

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CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
SPACE IS LIMITED - DEADLINE DEC 10TH – APPLY TODAY!
May 27th- June 5th, 2011 3 CREDITS $3695 w/o Airfare

DESCRIPTION: This exciting new program brings you to the heart of conflict in the South Caucasus. The course will take place in Tbilisi, Georgia with lectures by a variety of specialists, including academics and practitioners. Formal sessions are complemented by various site visits, governmental and non-governmental, to encourage a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted issues affecting societies in conflict.
The program aims to provide context for understanding the change that the South Caucasus has experienced during the past years, opportunities for understanding conflict tensions surrounding inter-community relations, and the aftermath of wars involving South Ossetians, Abkhaz, Russians, and Georgians, as well as the conflict over Karabakh. Related dynamics in the North Caucasus and globally will also be considered.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Susan Allen Nan will lead this program. Dr. Nan is a scholar-practitioner of conflict resolution whose main focus is on the South Caucasus. She also works on evaluating conflict resolution initiatives and community conflict resolution approaches. She has engaged long-term in conflict resolution in Eurasia, as well as contributing to a variety of initiatives in Eastern Europe.

APPLICATION PROCESS: In order to be eligible for the course in the Caucasus, participants must submit a CV (or resume), a personal statement of no more than one page explaining why they want to participate and a photocopy of their passport to Program Director, Bram Houben at ahouben@gmu.edu

PROGRAM FEE & DETAILS: $3,695.00
Program fee includes double-occupancy hotel lodging; daily breakfast; most other meals; in-country ground transportation; airport transfer; emergency evacuation insurance; pre-departure orientation; cultural excursions; course trainers and speakers costs; Tuition for 3 Credits (CONF 399*/695); but NOT international airfare. 

ELIGIBILITY: Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus is open to all Mason and Non-Mason bachelors, Ms and Ph.D students as a 3 credit course and to non-students as a professional development seminar. Mason students can take the course as CONF 385*/399*/695 (Other options may be available – check with your advisor).
*Please check with your advisor

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Master Students graduating in the Spring 0f 2011 are still eligible to walk during the May Graduation Ceremony while enrolled in this class.

CRDC website
CRDC International Courses webpage

DR. SUSAN ALLEN NAN IN THE NEWS
The roles of conflict resolution scholars in Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South-Ossetian conflict
Susan Allen Nan Faculty Page
Interview Susan Allen Nan





Susan Allen Nan, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, commenting on the different approaches of presidential candidates Obama and McCain to Russia and the challenges in the US Russia relationship following the outbreak of violence in Georgia and South Ossetia. Nan contends that McCain's rhetoric has been inflammatory, with name-calling that leaves little room for a productive Russian response while Obama's rhetoric has been just as strong, while leaving the door open for negotiation and collaboration. Interview conducted on September 24th, 2008. Video courtesy of Al Jazeera English.