{"id":79772,"date":"2013-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/blog-post\/stalin-today-trials-and-tribulations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:20:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:20:53","slug":"stalin-today-trials-and-tribulations","status":"publish","type":"blog-post","link":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/blog-post\/stalin-today-trials-and-tribulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Stalin today: Trials and tribulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\nBy Ivo Mijnssen \u2013 <\/em>Stalin continues to grip the imagination even sixty years after his death. While Russian society wavers between nostalgia and condemnation, Switzerland\u2019s relations with the country continue to be surprisingly good.<\/strong>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\n\u201eOne cannot but contemplate how many people he has mercilessly removed from his way. But this thought is immediately followed by the notion that, had he not been harsh and implacable, he would not have been Stalin, and that probably, very probably he would not be where he can now be seen: in complete apotheosis.\u201c The Swiss emissary to Moscow, Camille Gorg\u00e9, wrote these words on the occasion of Joseph Stalin\u2019s death on March 5th<\/sup>\u00a01953, sixty years ago. The document is part of a recently released collection from the historical project Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland<\/a>. Switzerland restored diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union in 1946 in recognition of the latter\u2019s political weight and in the hope of entering negotiations on restoration of assets in Eastern Europe and Russia, says historian Thomas B\u00fcrgisser. Hence, in spite of the Swiss public\u2019s stout anti-Communism, relations with the USSR continued to be pragmatic after Stalin\u2019s death.\n\nThe document shows what a towering figure Stalin was \u2013 and continues to be. The majority of books by historians of Russia are still today written about Stalinism, and Western media are quick to draw parallels between autocratic tendencies in contemporary Russia and Stalinist rule. A google search of \u201ePutin is Stalin\u201c yields almost 30\u2019000 results. Such a comparison is unfounded, as today\u2019s Russia is a much more complex and freer society than it was under Stalin. Still, he continues to play a political role.\n\nA poll by the independent Levada-Center<\/a>\u00a0in Moscow on the occasion of Stalin\u2019s death showed that just under half of Russians view Stalin positively and consider him a \u201ewise leader\u201c. At the same time, two thirds see him as a tyrant who killed millions of people, and more than half believe his repressions cannot be justified. Most drastically, only one out of five Russians would want to live in a Stalinist society.\n\nA shadow that looms large<\/strong>\n\nThis highly ambiguous image is shaped first and foremost by the experience of the last twenty years, rather than the supposed continuity of a totalitarian political system in Russia: For many, a \u201ebenevolent dictator\u201c who develops and modernizes the country has a certain appeal after the chaotic 1990s and the current leadership\u2019s inability to solve basic problems like widespread corruption and neglected infrastructure. Under Putin, who has often spoken of a need for modernization and a more positive view of Russia\u2019s history, Stalin\u2019s image has at times certainly been shaped to conform to this ideal.\n\nThe second source of Stalin\u2019s popularity is linked to victory in World War II. Even critical Russian intellectuals credit Stalin for this victory, and its commemoration continues to occupy a crucial position in contemporary Russia. Nonetheless, Stalin\u2019s policies during the war against Russia\u2019s neighbors (take the Baltic states or Poland) continue to encumber international relations in Eastern Europe, and his crimes against his own people are one source of the widespread distrust of the state.\n\nNonetheless, it would be wrong to claim that Stalin has been rehabilitated in contemporary Russia. Instead, Putin and Medvedev deal with Stalin in an awkward and often contradictory manner. One example is the recent decision to return the name of Stalingrad to the city of Volgograd \u2013 albeit only on six days of the year \u2013 namely for the commemoration of the battle of Stalingrad. Most Russians oppose<\/a>\u00a0a full renaming, and particularly younger people are increasingly indifferent to Stalin.\n\nEqually unlikely is a return of Stalinist imperial policies, in spite of Putin\u2019s occasional grand gesture. Russia\u2019s elite is too closely connected to the international economy, not least because most of its assets lie on bank accounts in Switzerland and other tax havens. Relations between Russia and Switzerland continue to be good sixty years after Stalin\u2019s death. This year, Russia even invited Switzerland to the G20 meetings. Not surprisingly, it listed Swiss knowledge of the international financial system as the main reason.\n\nDer foraus-Blog ist ein Forum, das sowohl den foraus-Mitgliedern als auch Gastautoren\/innen zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt wird. Die hier ver\u00f6ffentlichten Beitr\u00e4ge sind pers\u00f6nliche Stellungsnahmen der Autoren\/innen. Sie entsprechen nicht zwingend der Meinung der Redaktion oder des Vereins foraus.<\/em>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"archive-status":[],"region":[],"custom-themes":[1823],"class_list":["post-79772","blog-post","type-blog-post","status-publish","hentry","custom-themes-volkerrecht-multilateralismus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-post\/79772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog-post"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"archive-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive-status?post=79772"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=79772"},{"taxonomy":"custom-themes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foraus.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-themes?post=79772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}