I want to discuss Joseph Stalin's legacy, not merely to history (this topic has already been covered and debated everywhere, including here), but mainly to the countries that suffered under his rule and now have to cope with that legacy as best they can. I am referring not only to Russia, of course, but also to countries throughout Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia. What prompted this topic is an article I just read in the latest issue of the New Republic, "Statue of Limitations" by James Kirchick, September 2, 2010, v. 241, no. 14, pp. 8-10.
It seems that even now, almost exactly two years after the Russian invasion of Georgia, major tensions remain in the relations between the two countries. One expression of this, Kirchick argues, is the continuing debate about the legacy of Stalin. While Russia "has been busy rehabilitating Stalin" in recent years, he says, Georgia (the actual birthplace of the Soviet dictator), has begun "to place Stalin in his proper historical context." Further: "the Kremlin's readoption of Stalin has only given Georgia's Westward-looking leaders even greater incentive to reject him. In the new Georgia, 'Stalin is no longer Georgian,' [Simon Sebag] Montefiore says. 'He's a Russian emperor.'"
In 2006 Georgian authorities opened the Museum of Soviet Occupation. Apparently Putin was so infuriated by this that he complained to Georgian President Saakashvili in person. "Acknowledging that Stalin and his ruthless secret police chief Lavrenti Beria were of Georgian stock, Saakashvili reportedly replied that Putin could build a museum of Georgian oppression in Moscow and that he would donate the funds for it."
Other evidence of an ongoing, official Georgian campaign to demythologize Stalin: this summer the famous statue of Stalin that stood in Tbilisi was removed by the authorities and relocated to the recently revamped Stalin museum, which is now not a museum to Stalin, Georgia's former favorite native son, but a museum to Stalinist propaganda and the cult of personality. From being a national hero Stalin has become something of a pariah in modern-day Georgia. This is understandable as Georgians have become more knowledgeable about their history. "According to Montefiore, Georgia suffered more from the purges on a per capita basis than any other Soviet republic."
By the way, this topic was supposed to go under "The Russian Revolution" not "Russian Imperial History." Perhaps someone will be kind enough to move it for me? Sorry for the inconvenience.