Spying, accusing, imprisoning: there is so much Stalin in Putin’s Russia The Portuguese Catholic Church apologizes to at least 5,000 victims of abuse

Sun, playground, restaurant – the hotel “Jami” in Dagestan right on the Caspian Sea in southern Russia advertises its guests with beautiful pictures of the blue sea water and a sandy beach. Not far from here is a military hospital, the excavators rolled in a few days ago.

What they pulled out of the sand was a glimpse of the country’s dark Soviet past: 18 skulls with holes that looked like shots in the back, human remains lined up. A mass grave. “Presumably from the time of the Stalinist repression in the 1930s,” Russia’s Interior Ministry finally announced after photos of the find circulated on Telegram channels.

Suddenly there was a topic in the news that the current regime and the majority of the people of Russia often ignore: state terror, which millions of people had fallen victim to.

Since the mechanisms of state violence are still strong in the country today, the news of mass shootings on Dagestani beach quickly disappeared. State media only mentioned the mass grave briefly to reflect on the work of investigative agencies that have found bodies found in recent years. Talking about the murders back then is still dangerous. Coming to terms with the Stalinist regime is almost impossible because of the repressive laws in the Putin system.

Stroke after drinking

March 5 marks the 70th anniversary of the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. During his lifetime, the eternal fear of purges had never left even his immediate subordinates. When Stalin suffered a stroke on the night of March 1, 1953 after a drinking session with party friends at his dacha near Moscow and did not show up the next morning, no one dared to enter his room, where he lay on the floor at night. his pajamas and didn’t move.

To this day there are people in Moscow who remember the procession of the dead through the city. How people cried, with joy or horror. Some of those mistreated by Stalin’s human annihilation machine were not rehabilitated until the 1990s, many only after death.

Many mechanisms of Stalinism are promoted in the Putin system. Fathers sue their sons, one neighbor reports another to the authorities, one colleague blacks out another. Teachers call the police and the youth inspectorate if their accusation even slightly questions the official line.

educational courses and imprisonment

Cases like the case of ten-year-old Varya from a Moscow suburb and sixth-grade Masha from the Tula region show how even children are criminalized and that schools have long ceased to provide a safe haven. Varya had used a profile picture in the Ukrainian colors blue and yellow in class chat, Masha had taken a picture with the Russian and Ukrainian flags in art class and written “No to war” underneath.

Directors of both institutions had the girls taken away by several police officers for questioning. Searches were made of the families of the students. Since then, Warja’s single mother has had to take a “prevention course” at Bureau Jeugdzorg, where she is told how to raise her children “morally correctly”.

Masha’s single father faces several years in prison for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian military with his social media posts. Masha is currently in a home because her father is being held by the authorities. Such examples act as a deterrent, especially since the fear – inherited from the Soviet era – runs deep within people.

Despite his ruthless brutality, Stalin today has the image of an “effective manager,” a hardened leader who led the country to victory over the Nazis. A bust of him was recently erected in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad.

Since Putin sees his “special operation” in Ukraine as a continuation of the Soviet struggle in World War II, Stalin is something of a signpost for many in the Moscow regime. Putin calls critics of his “just cause” “scum” that must be destroyed.

At a meeting, many a regional head puts down the heads of state enterprises with the words: “Under Josef Stalin in the 1930s, you and your families and other relatives would have been shot long ago. And you would have done the right thing.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)