Politics

Scottish Review : Alan Fisher

3 December 2008 · Alan Fisher

Alan Fisher’s Letter from Moscow

Wednesday 3 December
One of the big hits on Russian television this winter has been a series trying to establish who the greatest Russian in history is. Hundreds of thousands of people have voted by email, text and phone. Right now, top of the list is Alexander Nevsky, a name little known to outsiders – he was an early Russian hero who is now revered as a saint.
     In second place is perhaps the predictable favourite, Peter the Great. But in third is a name which will surprise many outside of Russia and it is Joseph Stalin.
     This was a man who presided over the murder of millions of his own countrymen, who had thousands shipped off to forced labour camps for an attitude adjustment or just because they displeased him. He shattered families and lives. Yet, to many here, he is a hero. He ensured victory for Russia in the Second World War, a defining moment in the Russian national psyche. He turned the country from its rural, agricultural, almost backward ways into an industrialised giant with global power. And he built Soviet influence around the world as the dominant figure in Russian life for 31 years.
     The man behind the show is Alexander Lyubimov. A TV host for more than 20 years, he believes the support for such a figure is perhaps an anti-establishment campaign of young, internet-savvy mischief-makers. But he also accepts there are many people around the country who revere the former dictator.
     That surprises Masha Lipman. She believes as a liberal academic she would have been a target for the Stalinist police. ‘What you have when you see this poll is the butcher, the murdered pushed aside and almost forgotten. It’s as if there were no killings, no disappearances, and no labour camps. People only see the war hero, the reformer, and that is the story that’s now beginning to creep into a lot of history books’.
     On the streets we stop and ask people what they think about the list. One man tells me: ‘I would vote for Peter the Great, I could never support Stalin, he was evil’. But one smart young woman is more considerate. She too would like Peter the Great to win but adds: ‘Russia needed someone like Stalin at that time, someone to move the country forward. If it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else with all the horrible things that brought’.
     It’s hard to find statues of Stalin anywhere any more. But in a quiet corner of a very quiet park is a statue graveyard. They are brought here when the face no longer fits and they’re no longer welcome on the squares and in the streets. And in the back, there are two of Joseph Stalin. One is tall and grand but the nose has been violently broken off while the other is made of white marble, now looking weather-beaten and worn.
     Stalin might be hidden away and almost forgotten but this poll shows there are thousands more who still believe he is a true Russian hero.

Thursday 4 December
Vladimir Putin is about to go live across Russia to answer questions from viewers. He’s done it before when he was president. He may not hold the top job and he may be presented as simply the leader of the United Russia Party, but everyone knows he is the real power in the land. In the past, Putin has gone on for more than three hours, taking more than 60 questions. He’s been asked about his fitness regime, when he became sexually active and, of course, about important issues of state. This time it’s thought the questions will concentrate on the economy, the war in Georgia and relations with America, Europe and their near neighbours.
     He’ll sit in front of the camera having landed a major diplomatic victory by essentially blocking NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine. America was keen to get them on board. Russia was ferociously anti and the Germans and the French didn’t want to anger Moscow in December with its vast energy power so the idea has been put back. ‘Oh yes,’ says NATO, ‘the two will eventually become members’, but no-one is ready to say when eventually will be.
     At the end of the NATO meeting, Russia was the happiest country, and it’s not even a member.