Victoria Khromova: Russia has changed. It is now open about the Stalin era
[Victoria Khromova is a Moscow-born Russian currently in the UK training to be a psychiatrist.]
Your report on the detention of a Russian historian contained a comment from Orlando Figes attributing the arrest to the "Putinite campaign against freedom of historical research and expression" (Historian arrested over research into Stalin era, 16 October). This made me revisit a previous Figes article expressing his belief that the Kremlin wishes to rehabilitate Stalin and hence had an influence on the publisher's decision to drop his book (Shelved — did Kremlin make my Stalin book disappear?, 4 March).
I am not privy to the Kremlin's unofficial line on history. However, I am Russian and am exposed to its popular culture, available to millions without hindrance. Having experienced first-hand the information and propaganda available in the Soviet days, it is obvious to me that the Russian media have become progressively more open about the atrocities attributed to Stalin.
In the middle of Putin's presidency in 2004, two novels set during Stalin's rule were adapted and screened on prime-time mainstream television. The Moscow Saga, written by Vasily Aksyonov in 1992, tells the story of a family that is unfortunate in being close to Stalin and is shattered by the terror and the gulags. It graphically depicts how people's morals – especially those in the secret police and the party – were mangled by the paranoid environment, and charts the rise of Stalin, showing him in a light that would not seem out of place in a western portrayal of the dictator.
Children of the Arbat, written by Anatoli Rybakov and suppressed until its publication in 1987, describes the disappointment of even those who believed, as well as the mounting hysteria and the witch-hunt atmosphere...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
Your report on the detention of a Russian historian contained a comment from Orlando Figes attributing the arrest to the "Putinite campaign against freedom of historical research and expression" (Historian arrested over research into Stalin era, 16 October). This made me revisit a previous Figes article expressing his belief that the Kremlin wishes to rehabilitate Stalin and hence had an influence on the publisher's decision to drop his book (Shelved — did Kremlin make my Stalin book disappear?, 4 March).
I am not privy to the Kremlin's unofficial line on history. However, I am Russian and am exposed to its popular culture, available to millions without hindrance. Having experienced first-hand the information and propaganda available in the Soviet days, it is obvious to me that the Russian media have become progressively more open about the atrocities attributed to Stalin.
In the middle of Putin's presidency in 2004, two novels set during Stalin's rule were adapted and screened on prime-time mainstream television. The Moscow Saga, written by Vasily Aksyonov in 1992, tells the story of a family that is unfortunate in being close to Stalin and is shattered by the terror and the gulags. It graphically depicts how people's morals – especially those in the secret police and the party – were mangled by the paranoid environment, and charts the rise of Stalin, showing him in a light that would not seem out of place in a western portrayal of the dictator.
Children of the Arbat, written by Anatoli Rybakov and suppressed until its publication in 1987, describes the disappointment of even those who believed, as well as the mounting hysteria and the witch-hunt atmosphere...