New statues of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union dictator who slaughtered millions, are being erected in Russia as Confederate monuments are dismantled the United States.
Anna Arutunyan, a Russia-American journalist based in Moscow, reports in USA Today that about 10 statues of Stalin have been raised since 2012, despite the once-disgraced leader's horrific purge of "anti-Soviet elements in which 15 to 30 million people were executed, starved or died in labor camps. His murder spree included an anti-Semitic campaign against Jewish doctors, writers, and poets.
"Although condemned for his brutality after his death, Stalin is now getting new respect from both an older generation nostalgic for the lost Soviet empire, which collapsed in 1991, and a younger generation of nationalistic Russians," Arutunyan writes.
Where statutes of Stalin were once toppled, he's now feted in sales of Stalin magnets, mugs, T-shirts and statues sold by street vendors in Russia, she says. Russian President Vladimir Putin even condemned the "excessive demonization" of Stalin in a recent interview with director Oliver Stone. Stalin died in 1953.
The rehabilitation of Stalin's legacy comes as communities across the United States begin taking down monuments commemorating Confederate soldiers because of their links to slavery.
Arutunyan is the author of "The Putin Mystique," published by Olive Branch Press.
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