Russia: Searching for the golden mean between forgetting and remembering
There is hardly a single country on earth that doesn’t have a couple of shameful pages in its history book. We keep telling ourselves “we should remember our history to avoid messing things up again”. But let’s consider a fact that the darkest period in some country’s history could be its most glorious time as well. What do I mean by glorious? First of all it’s a blend of power and importance in the international scene, fast development and military victories. The other factor is romantic memories and stereotypes about that time formed much later through works of art and mass media. And when a country needs an emotional ‘jump’ these happy images of the past can be used by the government to inspire its people.
Russia needs that ‘jump’ right now and the governmental officials have been thinking about changing the name of Volgograd city to Stalingrad. Let me tell you a bit of information behind it to clarify things up. Volgograd city (literally, a city on the Volga River) had three names throughout its history; it was called Tsaritsin (or Tsar City) up until 1925 when Joseph Stalin gave the city his own name. The city of Stalingrad was a place of a huge Second World War battle in 1943. The battle is won. Who cares how much blood was shed? The victory was glorious and will be remembered. In fact, Stalin didn’t bother keeping his people alive: a sword of being sent to prison was hanging over every one, and if you are sent to prison consider yourself lucky for not being executed. That’s why any talk about getting Stalin’s name back into a present-day Russia gave some people quivers down the spine. The proposal to rename the city hasn’t been supported… yet.
But the history shouldn’t be forgotten to ensure the lesson is learned. For that reason in July 2012 a group of Russian activists came up with an interesting set of social prints. They called it “Stalin was like…”. In these prints Stalin is compared to Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, Yandex ( Russian Search Engine), Youtube, Foursquare and Vkontakte ( Russian Facebook). The purpose was to ignite the conversation about Stalin’s cruelty and avoid romanticizing this period of time. Unfortunately, according to Snob magazine the Russian youth doesn’t really know a thing about the Great Purge or Yezhovshina the time when the Secret police, death sentences and Siberian exiles flourished. For a good chunk of them Stalin “was a man who won the Second World War” and that’s it. I personally find these ads very original and amusing; first they make you smile than your face turns into a question mark when you read a text under an image.
Everybody is kind of familiar with Twitter nowadays. When I look at the picture I can’t help but love these moustaches. So funny, you think at first, but then your eyes go down to read the following:” The arrested were often tortured; the sentences were carried out immediately without a hearing in court. Great Terror 1937-1938 it’s not the time to forget”.
Stalin was like Apple – very expensive.
Apple is a symbol of quality and chic which you should pay dearly for. Russia paid dearly as well for Stalin’s terror:” 681,692 people we condemned to execution by shooting”.
This campaign caused a stir in the society; it was accused of being cheap and provocative. But as Demian Kudryavtsev, a media manager, replies: “The project was aimed at 14-24 year olds who know plenty about social networking sites but nothing about their own country. We’ve taken this controversial step not to stand still any more”.
It is so hard to have your say about the deeds of the past. What is the best way to educate people about the past? How can you make people feel the past? The farther you go the more difficult it is to recall and the easier to forget.
The quotes were taken from Snob.ru
This is a guest post by Mary Ann. Mary Ann is a translator and Farsi teacher with a degree in Cultural Anthropology. She enjoys helping other people to learn and broaden their horizons in terms of cultural knowledge. You can visit her blog at artncultura@wordpress.com
America – genocide of First Peoples, Slavery, “dirty wars” against Communism supplied by CIA drug importation of cocaine and heroin, a long list of dictarors supported, Belgium – the Congo, Read “Heart of Darkness”,China – Cultural Revolution, on and on, England – Victorian age, exterminating Tasmanians like sport hunting, Opium Wars, France – Bonaparte, Algeria, African colonialism, African nations – Tutsis/Hutus, Apartheid, Biafra, Australia – decimation of Aborigones, Germany – “Hello, Russia!..Lebensrum”, German East Africa, too little room to list the crimes of Imperial nations. Russia seems lacking, if anything. Every other nation re-writes or forgets their atrocities. Do as you will.
Well, you are absolutely right, I would add the Crusades and the Inquisition to your ‘black list’. As for Russia, the country had plenty of dictators through out the history such as Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great who were Stalin’s role models. Someone said that the Russians have the longing for tyranny. That’s pretty much explains the present day situation.
Heinrich Boll, the great German writer, who was a foot soldier in the battle for Stalingrad, was asked what he thought was the worst basic quality of the average German. He replied, “Obedience.” Kind of explains their tendency towards strong “cult of personality” leaders. Sounds simllar to Russia’s eternal dance with strong men, but I wouldn’t know.
Later….
Later…
I think it all comes down to Kant’s ideas ( I am taking a philosophy course right now). He ‘accused’ people of being immature to think for themselves relying on the ‘guardians’. This kind of obedience comes from intellectual laziness… Anyway that’s another story.
Excellent, well-written piece that was as informative as it was insightful. Well done.
Thanks for visiting at Life Beyond the Picket Fence! You’ve got a great site!
its sad that anybody would want to honor this man. He was a brutal leader, no matter what victories he brought to his country. If I remember correctly he had millions of his own people killed. I believe he was responsible for more deaths than the tyrant Hitler.
Sure, you remember correctly. But the thing is that not everybody does their homework and remembers correctly. And what does it mean to remember correctly, anyway? The more we drift away from those times the more we start to play with history to our advantage.
You are right Mary Ann,
Power is a terrible thing in the hands of the wrong people. Who has ever been right for a position of power? Few can handle the power, praise, money and position and not take advantage of the people under him or her.
People forget history or purposely suppress it. Whatever serves their purpose at the time I think.
I agree, but there is something else… History is always right, they say: we can make out things clearer through the crystal ball of history. But if the facts are compromised in a way learning from history is no longer possible and meaningless. Oh well, that’s a stretch may be but makes one wonder.
Great post, and I think the posters are an interesting way to stir national discussion. That said, I can see where the critics are coming from: By associating Stalin’s face with popular social media sites, by using the cute Twitter bird for Stalin’s mustache on an ad, is there a risk of making Stalin seem acceptable or harmless? Lots of people these days don’t really read the fine print, do they?
Yes, the campaign managers were accused of exactly this – making Stalin’s figure ‘harmless and cute’ but that was to capture the attention first so a person would get to the facts at the bottom of an ad and think. Anyway, it’s a conversation starter or at least they hope it is.
Wow, people really have a short memory.
Innovative way of getting youth’s attention only catch being what if they don’t read the fine print!
Thank you for liking and following my blog. It is a delight to read an intelligent post such as this one. Very few people or nations can put up their hand to say they have never been cruel. Blame can lead to a sense of self-righteousness. Looking at the back story and deciding how the circumstances that lead to cruelty can be stalled is harder work and could more productive.
Czeslaw Milosz noted (1981) that “The Captive Mind” … was written in 1951/52 in Paris at the time when the majority of French intellectuals resented their country’s dependence upon American help and placed their hopes in a new world in the East, ruled by a leader of incomparable wisdom and virtue, Stalin.
Bottom line personally is that we should remember that which was called “Mother Russia” at one point and time in history. For that alone, historical values and lessons overall for the most part. So those of future generations will learn from our past mistakes and errors and successes.