'Admiration and Respect': Russians approve of Stalin’s all-time high

In March, Russian sociologists conducted a regular survey on the attitude of Russians to the personality of Joseph Stalin. The level of Stalin’s approval and justification for the repressions reached a historic high over the entire study period.

Фото: Depositphotos

The role of Stalin in history is positively assessed by 70% of Russians, a survey by the Levada Center showed, writes RBC. This is a record for all the years of relevant research. Almost half of the respondents are ready to justify the repression of the Stalin era.

With admiration and respect

The survey showed that in 2019, the total level of positive attitude towards the Soviet leader reached the maximum level for all the years of research: every second survey participant (51%) declared his admiration for Stalin, respect or sympathy for him.

The most significant growth (in 12 percentage points) fell on "respect" - this attitude to Stalin in 41% of respondents, and it is the most common.

The share of those who have a negative attitude towards Stalin, experiencing irritation, fear or disgust, is three times lower - 14%.

The dynamics of public opinion in the 2000-ies indicate three periods of the predominance of certain assessments of the person of Stalin, said sociologist Levada-Center Karina Pipia. At the beginning of the 2000s, there was an approximately equal ratio of positive and negative opinions. In the 2008 – 2014, a neutral, non-judgmental attitude began to prevail, which, according to sociologists, testified to an increased indifference of the population to the problems of Stalinism. Finally, from 2015, the number of neutral or negative-minded Russians towards Stalin is reduced.

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The same tendencies are visible on the question of recognizing Stalin’s merits for the country. According to the results of the last March poll, his role is considered positive by 70% of Russians, which is a record over the entire survey period. Total 19% assess its role in the life of the country negatively.

A positive attitude towards the Soviet leader and his role in the history of the country has been fixed at the level of a new social norm, Pipia believes. “If before the population avoided expressing concrete assessments or found it difficult to answer, now positive opinions about the leader are increasingly expressed or supported,” the sociologist notes. At the same time, the level of a positive attitude towards Stalin is higher than that of Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and others, she adds.

Predominantly positive feelings for Stalin and assessments of his role in the life of the country are experienced not only by supporters of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but also those who voted in the presidential election for Vladimir Putin or Vladimir Zhirinovsky. In all age groups, the proportion of respondents with a positive attitude dominates over the proportion of respondents with negative evaluations.

Although the youngest respondents (18 – 24 of the year) are more often indifferent to the Soviet leader. In the autumn of 2018, the VTsIOM survey showed that almost half (47%) of respondents from 18 to 24 years had never heard of political repression during the period of Stalin's rule.

Фото: Depositphotos

Stalin's mythologization

Leonty Byzov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, links the Russians' record love for Stalin with politicization and the split of society, which leads to more radical assessments of history. This process, in his opinion, is supported by state-owned media that form a positive image of the Soviet leader.

“In addition, Stalin is perceived in society as a defender of the oppressed. The population now feels increasingly abandoned, says Byzov. - Stalin's figure begins to be perceived as a symbol of justice and an alternative to the current government, which is evaluated as unfair, cruel and not caring about people. This is a purely mythological image of Stalin, very far from a real historical figure. ”

According to the Levada Center, opinion support for the unjustified “human sacrifices suffered by the Soviet people in the Stalin era” (essentially, the recognition of Stalin’s crimes, explains Pipia) is gradually decreasing - from 49% in April 2017 of the year to 45% in March this year. Back in 2008, 60% of respondents thought so.

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“Stalin is perceived as a king who cut off the heads of hated boyars, and only a few innocent people became victims,” Leonty Byzov explains this tendency.

Last year’s poll by the Levada Center showed that the number of Russians who believe that the Stalinist leadership was to blame for the large number of people killed in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War was four times lower than in 1991.

As wrote earlier ForumDaily:

• In June, 2018, the VCIOM introduced list of figures of the early twentieth century, causing sympathy among the Russians, the first three places were taken by Nicholas II (54%), Stalin (51%) and Lenin (49%).

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