Russia's Communists mark Stalin's birthday

[onehandle]

Source: AP

MOSCOW – The Russian Communist Party called for a moratorium on criticizing Josef Stalin on Monday to allow the country to celebrate the Soviet dictator's 130th birthday in peace.

Nationwide, Stalin's popularity in Russia has been climbing amid Kremlin-backed efforts to defend his image.

"We would very much like for any discussion of the mistakes of the Stalin epoch to be silenced today, so that people could reflect on Stalin's personality as a creator, a thinker and a patriot," Ivan Melnikov, the Communist deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, said in comments posted on the party's Web site.

The Communist Party is still the second most powerful political force in the country after United Russia, the ruling party chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. At times, the Communists have defeated Putin's party in regional elections.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_stalin_s_birthday_1

[David__77]

1. The Communist Party in Russia is a nationalist party, and that is all.

They have two wings - social democratic and right-populist nationalist. There are few actual communists in that party, to be clear. That said, it is the only viable electoral opposition to the United Russia.

[Itchinjim]

2. They ought to celebrate the son of a bitch's death day: 03-05-53

Mass murdering thug.

[AlbertCat]

3. Russia's Communists mark Stalin's birthday

What.... did they sent mark it? Like a male cat?

[proteus_lives]

4. I guess they long for the days of purges, massacres and disappearances.

Idiots.

[bemildred]

5. Fools. nt

[Zynx]

7. Russia seems to enjoy suffering. I still love it that the period between Ivan the Terrible

and Michael Romanov was called "The Time of Troubles". In Russia, you know that must have been bad.

[Bette Noir]

6. I hope this isn't a clue to the new direction their country's going to take.

[Selatius]

8. It is if Vladimir Putin doesn't do anything to challenge the Oligarchs who run their economy now.

When the Soviet Union dissolved, the economy was opened up to private investment, and the drug cartels and mobsters and crooks started cutting deals to get their hands on the public wealth. In a lot of cases, public auctions where state-owned firms went on sale were bought for pennies on the dollar. We're talking about multi-billion dollar firms going on sale for mere hundreds of millions. People became instant billionaires by immediately turning around and then selling the company away in pieces...at market value. This is how their once powerful economy was drained dry, the wealth stolen.

[Mrdie]

9. Stalin's popular because he won WWII and improved living standards

Same reason why socialism (real or not) in Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly popular in general. Most countries were hit bad economically by its fall (and those who lives have improved have generally been millionaires and such), and people's lives were significantly more stable under such systems.

I don't think people actually praise Stalin for his conduct with the purges or whatever, they just see him as a guy who was fundamentally supportive of Russia and who sought to make it strong and its people independent. His actual communist ideology doesn't play much into this, and the CPRF itself agrees with Khrushchev's "secret speech" of 1956 condemning "Stalinism" as a distortion of Leninism. (Plus, as previously noted, it's more of a nationalist party than communist)

Just like there's probably over 60% of East Germans who, if they had the choice, would vote for an independent (or autonomous) state. Not because the Stasi was awesome, but because life was stable and things like unemployment were virtually non-existent.

[cowcommander]

10. Stalin can burn in hell

If there really is one, may that fucker suffer for all eternity for fucking up Russia and killing so many people.