Wednesday 1 May 2013

The great Stalin revival continues in Russia

The Great Leader

The Stalin revival continues in Putin's Russia

First it was the Soviet national anthem. Then it was the Soviet military parades. Now it is the Soviet lapel pins glorifying heroic work for the motherland. 

On May 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin will once again try to tap into Soviet nostalgia, this time by awarding Soviet era “Hero of Labor” stars to Russians in return for laudable deeds. It will be the first time the medals are bestowed since they were discontinued in 1991.--

The medals -- set up under Josef Stalin in 1927 -- will be handed out at a ceremony in Putin’s hometown Saint Petersburg to mark May 1, the Russian national holiday celebrating “Spring and Labor Day,” the successor to the Soviet “International Workers’ Day.”


RFERL forgot to mention at least three other Stalin favorites, already reintroduced by Putin; show trials, political killings executed  by the security service KGB/FSB and the gulag revival.    

What's next? 
Perhaps a revival of the literary tradition?: 

Thank you, Stalin, Putin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin Putin two days ago. Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men, because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were privileged to see Stalin Putin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history.. 

O great Stalin Putin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who broughtest man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts.


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