Stalin makes a comeback with Russian teachers

By Svetlana Osadchuk Moscow Times : Aug 31, 2008

MOSCOW: Last year, a Russian teachers' manual described Josef Stalin as an "effective manager." Now, a new teachers' manual says the Soviet dictator acted rationally in conducting a campaign of terror to ensure the country's modernization. The new manual, "A History of Russia, 1900-1945," is part of a series of educational material that the authors say will help promote patriotism in young people. Critics have taken exception to excerpts that they say are attempts to whitewash Stalin's crimes. A textbook to accompany the teachers' manual has not yet been finalized, so it will not be in the classroom when the school year begins Monday. The textbook is expected to be completed in March and there is no guarantee that the assessment of Stalin will remain.

Hundreds of thousands of people were executed and millions imprisoned under Stalin. The manual says the Great Terror of the 1930s came about because "Stalin did not know who would deal the next blow, and for that reason he attacked every known group and movement, as well as those who were not his allies or of his mindset." The manual, which the authors have posted on the Internet, stresses to teachers that "it is important to show that Stalin acted in a concrete historical situation" and that he acted "entirely rationally - as the guardian of a system, as a consistent supporter of reshaping the country into an industrialized state."

Although a teachers' manual last year described Stalin as an "effective manager," this judgment was removed from the final version of the textbook, "A Modern History of Russia, 1945-2006," said Larisa Alexeyeva, a senior editor with the Prosveshcheniye publishing house, which is printing the textbooks. The editor of the new book, Alexander Danilov, defended characterizing Stalin's actions as rational. "We are not defending Stalin," Danilov said. "We are just exploring his personality, explaining his motives and showing what he really achieved."

Roy Medvedev, a prominent Russian historian, said that such an approach "only formally appears to be objective. It is, in fact, falsification. Stalin by no means acted rationally all of the time and many of his actions damaged the country." Before World War II, he continued, "many in the military ranks were arrested - like my father, for example - and their children, little boys, were sent to the front."

According to an editor of the manual, Anatoly Utkin - who is director of the Center for International Research at the Institute of U.S.A. and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Stalin made several ingenious decisions during World War II, including moving Soviet war factories east, out of the reach of invading Nazi forces. "I have no personal affection for him, but I am a historian and I work with facts," Utkin said. Students should learn about all aspects of Stalin's personality, such as the fact that he had 10,000 books in his library that he had personally marked up, Utkin said. "Can you tell me of any other leader, an American president, for example, who read 10,000 books?" he asked.

Alexander Kondakov, head of Prosveshcheniye, said modern educational standards "demand the whole of society have its say about the most painful pages of our history," adding that the authors were bold people for putting forth such controversial theses. Alexander Kamensky, head of the history department at the Russia State University for the Humanities, said the manual was, "sadly, a sign that teaching history in schools had become "an ideological instrument."

Meeting with a group of history teachers in June 2007, Vladimir Putin, then president and now the prime minister, said that while Stalin's purges had been one of the darkest periods of the country's history, "others cannot be allowed to impose a feeling of guilt on us." While he did not directly name the United States, Putin made an obvious reference to the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and cited the Vietnam War in defending Russia's past.

www.iht.com/articles/200...pe/stalin.php


I'm constantly amazed how the 'history' of an event changes as years pass, leaders change, the general public concepts of political correctness evolve [or devolve]... here we see Russia dusting off and cleaning up the image of a man that caused so much pain to so many Russians, all in the name of patriotic pride...of course, Russia isn't alone in this housecleaning, and as more information is focused on the ephemeral Internet, we can see history morph right before our eyes.

how do you feel about this? have you any ideas of how we can preserve the past observations ? should we even be concerned, or am i only over-reacting ? i appreciate your viewpoint, i might just be to myopically bull-headed about this !