(no subject)

[sisyphus.livejournal.com]

So, in my October Revolution post, some people sounded a bit upset at my bringing it up with an old celebratory phrase. But now I see (here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051221/ap_on_re_eu/russia_stalin_s_birthday) that some Russians are celebrating Stalin's birthday with statues, and according to the article, "A growing number of Russian towns in recent years have considered erecting monuments to Stalin."

Can anyone who still lives in Russia explain your perception of this to me -- is Communism taboo or not? Would people think you were strange if you said you prefer to go back to the old system? Is this article full of shit? If it's not, is it only rebellious kids and ancient hardliners who are doing this kind of celebrating? Are the Communists still the number 2 party in the Duma?

EDIT: Also, what is the government, or Putin's position on celebrations of Lenin,Stalin, etc..?

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Russian people's perception of Stalin was discussed in this very community not long ago. I believe that community members gave a satisfactory answer to this question. Please note that this topic is very controversial and likely to cause flame and conflicts. So, if anything like that happens in the next 12 hours or so I may have to delete your post.

[dair-spb.livejournal.com]

the main word is some I believe :-)

"Some people are celebrating Stalin's birthday". I also believe that some people in Germany celebrate Hitler's birthday. And the like.

The point is, some people here, mostly older ones, live now much worse than that Soviet times. And even that Stalin times.

Govt remains silence. They understand menthality inertness, thus they kept old Soviet holiday (Nov 7th) but named it different.

One sure lie I mentioned: (quote) "A growing number of Russian towns in recent years have considered erecting monuments to Stalin".

Just "googled" for "памятник Сталину" ("Stalin's monumnent"). Found some links about debating of erecting Stalin's monument in Krasnoyarsk (they decided not to, btw) and some little town called Ishim (I don't know where is it) where communists' influence is meaningful.

Also there's some news about erecting monument of three leaders (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) of WWII anti-nacist coalition in Livadia, Krymea, Ukraine.

Well, number IS growing from 0 to 2. Maybe. But, you know, just one of their journalists' tricks.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>thus they kept old Soviet holiday (Nov 7th) but named it different

BTW it is not a holiday anymore, beginning this year. There was no Nov. 7 celebration this year. They had invented that strange Nov. 4 day instead, though, which not many people noticed anyway.

[dair-spb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I didn't notice either :-)

But of course you're right. "Strange Nov. 4" nowadays instead of traditional Nov.7.

[nataxxa.livejournal.com]

Putin's attitude is quite indifferent.
There is neither congratulations nor interdictions to those who celebrate such anniversaries.

But I do not think it is really connected with learning russian theme.

[dair-spb.livejournal.com]

oh, I just thought it's russia_love or soviet__union... ;-)

maybe we should move there?..

[nataxxa.livejournal.com]

I just answered trying not to start flaming here, no use for me going there, never lke politics;)

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Communism is certainly not taboo - why that? In a democratic or quite-looking-like country you have choice, and yes, communists are still #2 in Duma, as far as I know, so you might expect a lot of people choosing communism. Still I think they'll soon fall.

About Stalin monuments - I doubt. Stalin is a massively controversal person and local governments always seem to NOT do controversal things. On another side of things, we've got a Dzerjinsky memorial recently :))

There are still a lot of Lenin monuments - they was never demounted, but they are getting old as time passes...

P.S. If you want to know this, a lot of moscow underway stations have soviet symbolics - just because noone cares to remove it from there + it will really hurt aestetics of these stations + a lot of communisticaly-oriented people will cry loud.

[steppinrazor.livejournal.com]

Oi, I know this is even further off topic, but I just had to say that I dearly dearly hope nobody ever gets the idea to tear down all the communist monumental works and metro decorations.

Though, they may have an entirely different effect to folks living in Russia who have deeper ties to their meanings. I just remember being incredibly wowed by the forms and figures, and very interested in the history, culture, and philosophy or psychology behind their construction and placement. (I'm big on art history).

I do wonder how folks feel about walking by such reminders of Communist life on a daily basis, though.

[alamar.livejournal.com]

We feel dontcaringly, basically. Why should we feel negatively?

Thought there are pictures (in Moscow underground on the ceiling) which are more positive when anything I ever seen drawn.

They show different idealised people at work - builders, fruit gatherers, car assemblers... That's a 1000x more positive and than a young bitchy idle girl you'll probably see on any corporative site first page, if you will :))

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

As one of this community's maintainers, I have to make a brief remark: I do not think that his post is connected with our topic, which is learning Russian language. There is no linguistic question in the post.
There is one "cultural" question, though - "is Communism taboo or not." Since Russia has a legal Communist party, which, according to official figures, is the country's second largest, and this party has a considerable fraction in the Duma (Russian parliament,) even not a very bright one can guess that no, their ideology, called Communism, is not a taboo in Russia.
There is also another question, which is neither linguistic nor cultural: "Is this article full of shit?"
The answer is, unfortunately, yes. The author mentions a minor town in Ossetia (Stalin was, according to some sources, half Ossetian himself,) then, claiming that it is the number of RUSSIAN cities supporting the idea of a Stalin's monument which is growing, he mentions Stalin's hometown of Gori, which is NOT in Russia, but in Georgia. Georgia is an independent country, you see. I cannot see how the trends in Russia can be judged by the trends in other countries.
Did I answer some of your questions?

[coldmacana.livejournal.com]

It's safe to say that this isn't the AP's finest piece. I think it may also be worth mentioning (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Ossetia is a big political issue -- is it possible that this may play something of a role in this little town erecting a statue? Leaving aside for a moment the issue of a whopping dozen or two of supporters showing up for these things, I know that Ossetia was essentially chopped in half following the end of the USSR -- half ended up within Russia, and the other in Georgia. Perhaps, in this case, this is more of the reason involved?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of keeping politically-charged discussions here. I have tried to answer the obvious, and this was all. Personally, I could not care less if some jerks support the loving memory of their late leader out of pure affection, or due to ideological reasons, or it is some kind of doublethink involving somebody's hurt ethnic feelings. Sorry for being honest ;-)

Stalin

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

About Putin... In modern Russia most of people thinks that the government and president are bandits & thieves.

About 1/3 of people support the communist party.

For many people Stalin is a greatist ruler in Russian history, who won the WWII.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/erwin_langman/406675.html

[im-such-a-slav.livejournal.com]

I agree that this subject does not belong here.

I realize arguments can be made that it is related to language (because culture and history are inherently related to languague), but I don't think that is enough to justify the topic being posted in this community.

For that reason I will keep my opinions to myself. I just wanted to say I think this type of topic should not be posted here.

[stephan-nn.livejournal.com]

It's very difficult to answer.

Communistic Party of Russian Federation always get 12-20% votes in elections...

I dislike communists but old generation people are in nostalgie. Many people like cheap products and don't undestand that it's very bad because of inflation.

November, 7 was cancellet to celebrate as a holiday only in 2005 (before that, in 90-s Boris Yeltsin re-named it to "День согласия и примирения") and now instead of that we celebrate November, 4 because of the great feat by Minin and Pozharsky in 1612.