Editing Stalinism (section)

== Legacy ==
{{Main|Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin|Predictions of the collapse of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Saxlmuzeum.jpg|upright|thumb|Stalin statue in front of the [[Joseph Stalin Museum, Gori]]]]
[[File:Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W).jpg|thumb|left|British prime minister [[Winston Churchill]], United States president [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and Stalin, the Big Three Allied leaders during World War II at the Yalta Conference in February 1945]]
In Western [[historiography]], Stalin is considered one of the worst and most notorious figures in modern history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=Dennis J. |title=Caught Between Roosevelt & Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow |date=1 January 1998 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-7074-9 |pages=6, 271 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cm6IH1a4oksC&pg=PR3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Creveld |first1=Martin van |title=The Rise and Decline of the State |date=26 August 1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-65629-0 |page=402 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdhnbrZJ3ZQC&dq=joseph+stalin+%C2%A0one+of+the+worst+dictators%C2%A0&pg=PA402 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Jeremy E. |title=Visual Histories of Occupation: A Transcultural Dialogue |date=28 January 2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-14220-6 |page=239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=baIyEAAAQBAJ&dq=joseph+stalin+%C2%A0one+of+the+worst+dictators+of+the+20th+century%C2%A0&pg=PA239 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Stalin: A Biography |date=2005 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-01697-2 |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSWK6Dh4wRgC&q=Stalin+notorious+figures |language=en}}</ref> Biographer and historian [[Isaac Deutscher]] highlighted the [[totalitarian]] character of Stalinism and its suppression of "[[socialism|socialist]] inspiration".<ref name="Stalin: A Political Biography" /> 

Several scholars have derided Stalinism for fostering [[anti-intellectual]], [[antisemitic]] and [[chauvinistic]] attitudes within the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tismaneanu |first1=Vladimir |title=Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe |date=10 November 2009 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-386-678-8 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqLeEAAAQBAJ&dq=Stalinism+anti+intellectualism+anti+westernism&pg=PA29 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fürst |first1=Juliane |title=Stalin's Last Generation: Soviet Post-War Youth and the Emergence of Mature Socialism |date=30 September 2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957506-0 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCEUDAAAQBAJ&dq=Stalinism+anti+intellectualism&pg=PA94 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism |date=31 December 2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-474-2360-7 |page=339 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3wOwCQAAQBAJ&dq=Stalinism+anti+intellectualism&pg=PA339 |language=en}}</ref> According to Marxist philosopher [[Helena Sheehan]], his philosophical legacy is almost universally rated negatively with most Soviet sources considering his influence to have negatively impacted the creative development of Soviet philosophy.<ref name="Verso Books">{{cite book |last1=Sheehan |first1=Helena |title=Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History |date=23 January 2018 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78663-428-3 |page=230 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dG_nDwAAQBAJ&dq=most+soviet+philosophers+today+reject+stalin&pg=PT340 |language=en}}</ref> Sheehan discussed omissions in his views on dialectics and noted that most Soviet philosophers rejected his characterization of [[Hegel]]'s philosophy.<ref name="Verso Books"/>

Pierre du Bois argues that the cult of personality around Stalin was elaborately constructed to legitimize his rule. Many deliberate distortions and falsehoods were used.<ref>Pierre du Bois, "Stalin – Genesis of a Myth," ''Survey. A Journal of East & West Studies'' 28#1 (1984) pp. 166–181. See abstract in {{cite book|author1=David R. Egan|author2=Melinda A. Egan|title=Joseph Stalin: An Annotated Bibliography of English-Language Periodical Literature to 2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_7Xh2euykoC&pg=PA157|year=2007|publisher=Scarecrow Press|page=157|isbn=978-0-8108-6671-3}}</ref> The Kremlin refused access to archival records that might reveal the truth, and critical documents were destroyed. Photographs were altered and documents were invented.<ref>Carol Strong and Matt Killingsworth, "Stalin the Charismatic Leader?: Explaining the 'Cult of Personality' as a legitimation technique." ''Politics, Religion & Ideology'' 12.4 (2011): 391–411.</ref> People who knew Stalin were forced to provide "official" accounts to meet the ideological demands of the cult, especially as Stalin presented it in 1938 in ''Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)'', which became the official history.<ref>N. N. Maslov, "Short Course of the History of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik)—An Encyclopedia of Stalin's Personality Cult". ''Soviet Studies in History'' 28.3 (1989): 41–68.</ref> Historian [[David L. Hoffmann]] sums up the consensus of scholars: "The Stalin cult was a central element of Stalinism, and as such, it was one of the most salient features of Soviet rule. [...] Many scholars of Stalinism cite the cult as integral to Stalin's power or as evidence of Stalin's megalomania."<ref>[[David L. Hoffmann]], "The Stalin Cult' ''The Historian'' (2013) 75#4 p. 909.</ref>

But after Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev repudiated his policies and condemned his [[cult of personality]] in his [[Secret Speech]] to the [[Twentieth Party Congress]] in 1956, instituting [[de-Stalinization]] and relative [[liberalization]], within the same political framework. Consequently, the world's communist parties that previously adhered to Stalinism, except the [[German Democratic Republic]] and the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]], abandoned it and, to a greater or lesser degree, adopted Khrushchev's positions. The [[Chinese Communist Party]] chose to split from the Soviet Union, resulting in the [[Sino-Soviet split]].

=== Maoism and Hoxhaism ===
[[Mao Zedong]] famously declared that Stalin was 70% good and 30% bad. [[Maoism|Maoists]] criticized Stalin chiefly for his view that bourgeois influence within the Soviet Union was primarily a result of external forces, to the almost complete exclusion of internal forces, and his view that class contradictions ended after the basic construction of socialism. Mao also criticized Stalin's cult of personality and the excesses of the great purge. But Maoists praised Stalin for leading the Soviet Union and the international proletariat, defeating fascism in Germany, and his [[anti-revisionism]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mao's Evaluations of Stalin|url=http://www.massline.org/SingleSpark/Stalin/StalinMaoEval.htm|access-date=August 3, 2014|website=MassLine}}</ref>

Taking the side of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] in the [[Sino-Soviet split]], the [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania]] remained committed, at least theoretically, to its brand of Stalinism ([[Hoxhaism]]) for decades under the leadership of [[Enver Hoxha]]. Despite their initial cooperation against "[[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionism]]", Hoxha denounced Mao as a revisionist, along with almost every other self-identified communist organization worldwide, resulting in the [[Sino-Albanian split]]. This effectively isolated Albania from the rest of the world, as Hoxha was hostile to both the pro-American and pro-Soviet spheres of influence and the Non-Aligned Movement under the leadership of [[Josip Broz Tito]], whom Hoxha had also previously denounced.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoxha |first=Enver Halil |title=The Titoites |url=http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/TT82NB.html |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=From Marx to Mao |page=501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title= Imperialism and the Revolution |date=1979 |first1=Enver |last1=Hoxha |chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/imp_ch1.htm |chapter=I - The Strategy of Imperialism and Modern Revisionism |access-date=2023-01-14 |via=Marxists Internet Archive }}</ref>

=== Trotskyism ===
{{Main|Trotskyism|Anti-Stalinist Left|The Stalin School of Falsification|Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg|thumb|[[Leon Trotsky]] was the leader of the [[Left Opposition]] which advocated for an alternative set of policies to Stalin.]]

[[Leon Trotsky]] always viewed Stalin as the "candidate for grave-digger of our party and the revolution" during the succession struggle.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=431 |language=en}}</ref> American historian [[Robert Vincent Daniels]] viewed Trotsky and the Left Opposition as a critical alternative to the Stalin-Bukharin majority in a number of areas. Daniels stated that the Left Opposition would have prioritised industrialisation but never contemplated the "[[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|violent uprooting]]" employed by Stalin and contrasted most directly with Stalinism on the issue of [[Soviet democracy|party democratization and bureaucratization]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=195 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref> Trotsky also opposed the policy of forced collectivisation under Stalin and favoured a [[volunteering|voluntary]], gradual approach towards [[collective farming|agricultural production]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beilharz |first1=Peter |title=Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-00-070651-2 |pages=1–206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfe-DwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+widely+acknowledged+collectivisation&pg=PT196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=Leon Trotsky : a revolutionary's life |date=2011 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13724-8 |page=161 |url=https://archive.org/details/leontrotskyrevol0000rube/page/160/mode/2up?q=forced+collectivization}}</ref> with greater tolerance for the rights of Soviet Ukrainians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=637 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leon Trotsky: Problem of the Ukraine (1939) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/04/ukraine.html |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

[[Trotskyists]] argue that the [[Stalinist Soviet Union]] was neither [[socialist]] nor [[communist]] but a [[bureaucratized]] [[degenerated workers' state]]—that is, a non-capitalist state in which exploitation is controlled by a ruling [[caste]] that, although not owning the [[means of production]] and not constituting a [[social class]] in its own right, accrues benefits and privileges at the working class's expense. Trotsky believed that the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] must be spread all over the globe's working class, the [[proletarians]], for world revolution. But after the failure of the revolution in Germany, Stalin reasoned that industrializing and consolidating Bolshevism in Russia would best serve the proletariat in the long run. The dispute did not end until Trotsky was murdered in his Mexican villa in 1940 by Stalinist assassin [[Ramón Mercader]].<ref name=RefFariaStatistics>{{cite web |last=Faria|first=MA|title=Stalin, Communists, and Fatal Statistics|url=http://www.haciendapublishing.com/articles/stalin-communists-and-fatal-statistics|access-date=September 5, 2012|date=January 8, 2012}}</ref> [[Max Shachtman]], a principal Trotskyist theorist in the U.S., argued that the Soviet Union had evolved from a degenerated worker's state to a new [[mode of production]] called ''[[bureaucratic collectivism]]'', whereby [[orthodox Trotskyists]] considered the Soviet Union an ally gone astray. Shachtman and his followers thus argued for the formation of a [[Third Camp]] opposed to the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet]] and [[Western Bloc|capitalist]] blocs equally. By the mid-20th century, Shachtman and many of his associates, such as [[Social Democrats, USA]], identified as [[social democrats]] rather than Trotskyists, while some ultimately abandoned socialism altogether and embraced [[neoconservatism]]. In the U.K., [[Tony Cliff]] independently developed a critique of [[state capitalism]] that resembled Shachtman's in some respects but retained a commitment to [[revolutionary communism]].<ref>Cliff, Tony (1948). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1948/xx/burcoll.htm "The Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism: A Critique"]. In Cliff, Tony (1988) [1974]. ''State Capitalism in Russia''. London: Bookmarks pp. 333–353. {{ISBN|9780906224441}}. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref> Similarly, American Trotskyist [[David North (socialist)|David North]] drew attention to the fact that the generation of bureaucrats that rose to power under Stalin's tutelage presided over the Soviet Union's [[Stagnation of the Soviet Union|stagnation]] and [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|breakdown]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=North |first1=David |title=In Defense of Leon Trotsky |date=2010 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-05-1 |pages=172–173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVqvouA22IkC |language=en}}</ref>

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=At a time when hundreds of thousands and millions of workers, especially in Germany, are departing from Communism, in part to fascism and in the main into the camp of indifferentism, thousands and tens of thousands of Social Democratic workers, under the impact of the self-same defeat, are evolving into the left, to the side of Communism. There cannot, however, even be talk of their accepting the hopelessly discredited Stalinist leadership.|source=—Trotsky's writings on Stalinism and fascism in 1933<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany |date=1971 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |isbn=978-0-87348-136-6 |pages=555–556 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nH5KwgEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>}}

Trotskyist historian [[Vadim Rogovin]] believed Stalinism had "discredited the idea of socialism in the eyes of millions of people throughout the world". Rogovin also argued that the [[Left Opposition]], led by Trotsky, was a political movement that "offered a real alternative to Stalinism, and that to crush this movement was the primary function of the Stalinist terror".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=1–2 |language=en}}</ref> According to Rogovin, Stalin had destroyed thousands of foreign communists capable of leading socialist change in their respective countries. He cited 600 active [[Bulgarian Communist Party|Bulgarian]] communists who perished in his prison camps along with the thousands of German communists whom Stalin handed over to the [[Gestapo]] after the signing of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact|German-Soviet pact]]. Rogovin further noted that 16 members of the [[Central Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of Germany|German Communist Party]] became victims of Stalinist terror. Repressive measures were also enforced upon the [[Hungarian Communist Party|Hungarian]], [[Yugoslav Communist Party|Yugoslav]] and other [[Communist Party of Poland|Polish Communist]] parties.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=380 |language=en}}</ref> British historian Terence Brotherstone argued that the Stalin era had a profound effect on those attracted to Trotsky's ideas. Brotherstone described figures who emerged from the [[Marxist-Leninism|Stalinist]] parties as miseducated, which he said helped to block the development of Marxism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brotherstone |first1=Terence |title=Trotsky's future. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=238}}</ref>

=== Other interpretations ===
[[File:GULag 2 Museum Moscow Russia.jpg|thumb|right|[[Gulag]] Museum in Moscow, founded in 2001 by historian [[Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko]]]]
Some historians and writers, such as [[Dietrich Schwanitz]],<ref>Schwanitz, Dietrich. ''Bildung. Alles, was man wissen muss'': "At the same time, Stalin was a kind of monstrous reincarnation of Peter the Great. Under his tyranny, Russia transformed into a country of [[industrial slave]]s, and the gigantic empire was gifted with a network of working camps, the ''[[Gulag Archipelago]]''."</ref> draw parallels between Stalinism and the economic policy of [[Tsar]] [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]]; Schwanitz in particular views Stalin as "a monstrous reincarnation" of him. Both men wanted Russia to leave the western European states far behind in terms of development. Some reviewers have considered Stalinism a form of "[[red fascism]]".<ref>{{cite book |last= Fried |first= Richard M.|title= Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-19-504361-7|page=50}}</ref> [[Fascist]] regimes ideologically opposed the Soviet Union, but some regarded Stalinism favorably for evolving [[Bolshevism]] into a form of fascism. [[Benito Mussolini]] saw Stalinism as having transformed Soviet Bolshevism into a [[Pan-Slavism|Slavic]] fascism.<ref>MacGregor Knox. Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Italy's Last War. pp. 63–64.</ref>

British historian [[Michael Ellman]] writes that mass deaths from famines are not a "uniquely Stalinist evil", noting that famines and droughts have been a [[Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union|common occurrence]] in [[History of Russia|Russian history]], including the [[Russian famine of 1921–22]], which occurred before Stalin came to power. He also notes that famines were widespread worldwide in the 19th and 20th centuries in countries such as India, Ireland, Russia and China. Ellman compares the Stalinist regime's behavior vis-à-vis the [[Holodomor]] to that of the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] (toward [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Ireland]] and [[Bengal famine of 1943|India]]) and the [[Group of Eight|G8]] in contemporary times, arguing that the G8 "are guilty of mass manslaughter or mass deaths from criminal negligence because of their not taking obvious measures to reduce mass deaths" and that Stalin's "behaviour was no worse than that of many rulers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries".<ref>Ellman, Michael (November 2002). [http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/ELM-Repression_Statistics.pdf "Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments"]. ''Europe-Asia Studies''. Taylor & Francis. '''54''' (7): 1152–1172. {{doi|10.1080/0966813022000017177}}. {{JSTOR|826310}}.</ref>

[[File:День памяти российских немцев, 28 августа 2011. Возложение цветов.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial to the victims of political repression in the USSR, in [[St. Petersburg]], made of a boulder from the [[Solovetsky Islands]]]]

[[David L. Hoffmann]] questions whether Stalinist practices of state violence derive from socialist ideology. Placing Stalinism in an international context, he argues that many forms of state interventionism the Stalinist government used, including social cataloguing, surveillance and concentration camps, predate the Soviet regime and originated outside of Russia. He further argues that technologies of social intervention developed in conjunction with the work of 19th-century European reformers and greatly expanded during World War I, when state actors in all the combatant countries dramatically increased efforts to mobilize and control their populations. According to Hoffman, the Soviet state was born at this moment of total war and institutionalized state intervention practices as permanent features.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=David |title=Cultivating the Masses: Modern State Practices and Soviet Socialism, 1914–1939 |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, New York |isbn=978-0-8014-4629-0 |pages=6–10}}</ref>

In ''The Mortal Danger: Misconceptions about Soviet Russia and the Threat to America'', anti-communist and Soviet dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] argues that the use of the term ''Stalinism'' hides the inevitable effects of communism as a whole on human liberty. He writes that the concept of Stalinism was developed after 1956 by Western intellectuals to keep the communist ideal alive. But "Stalinism" was used as early as 1937, when Trotsky wrote his pamphlet ''Stalinism and Bolshevism''.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/08/stalinism.htm "Leon Trotsky: Stalinism and Bolshevism (1937)"]. Marxists.org, 28 August 1937. Retrieved 12 July 2013.</ref>

In two ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' articles in 2002 and 2006, British journalist [[Seumas Milne]] wrote that the impact of the [[Post–Cold War era|post–Cold War]] narrative that Stalin and Hitler were twin evils, equating communism's evils with those of [[Nazism]], "has been to relativize the unique crimes of Nazism, bury those of colonialism and feed the idea that any attempt at radical social change will always lead to suffering, killing and failure."<ref>Milne, Seumas (12 September 2002). [http://m.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/sep/12/highereducation.historyandhistoryofart "The battle for history"]. ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 7 October 2020.</ref><ref>Milne, Seumas (16 February 2006). [https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,,1710891,00.html "Communism may be dead, but clearly not dead enough"]. ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 18 April 2020.</ref>

According to historian [[Eric D. Weitz]], 60% of German exiles in the Soviet Union had been liquidated during the Stalinist terror and a higher proportion of the KPD Politburo membership had died in the Soviet Union than in Nazi Germany. Weitz also noted that hundreds of German citizens, most of them Communists, were handed over to the Gestapo by Stalin's administration.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weitz |first1=Eric D. |title=Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State |date=13 April 2021 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22812-9 |page=280 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOgSEAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+handed+over+german+communists+gestapo&pg=PA280 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Public opinion ===
{{Main|Neo-Stalinism}}

In modern Russia, public opinion of Stalin and the former Soviet Union has [[Nostalgia for the Soviet Union|improved in recent years]].<ref>{{cite news|title=In Russia, nostalgia for Soviet Union and positive feelings about Stalin|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/29/in-russia-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-and-positive-feelings-about-stalin/|access-date=23 July 2018|work=[[Pew Research Center]]|date=June 29, 2017}}</ref> Levada Center had found that favorability of the Stalinist era has increased from 18% in 1996 to 40% in 2016 which had coincided with his rehabilitation by the Putin government for the purpose of social [[patriotism]] and [[militarisation]] efforts.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kolesnikov |first1=Andrei |title=A Past That Divides: Russia's New Official History |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2017/08/a-past-that-divides-russias-new-official-history?lang=en}}</ref> According to a 2015 [[Levada Center]] poll, 34% of respondents (up from 28% in 2007) say that leading the Soviet people to victory in [[World War II]] was such an outstanding achievement that it outweighed Stalin's mistakes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stalin|date=April 6, 2015 |url=https://www.levada.ru/en/2015/04/06/stalin/|access-date=2021-02-12|language=en-GB}}</ref> A 2019 Levada Center poll showed that support for Stalin, whom many Russians saw as the victor in the [[Great Patriotic War]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Joseph Stalin: Why so many Russians like the Soviet dictator |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47975704 |work=BBC News |date=18 April 2019}}</ref> reached a record high in the [[Post-Soviet states|post-Soviet era]], with 51% regarding him as a positive figure and 70% saying his reign was good for the country.<ref>{{cite news |last= Arkhipov|first=Ilya|date=April 16, 2019|title=Russian Support for Stalin Surges to Record High, Poll Says|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/russian-support-for-soviet-tyrant-stalin-hits-record-poll-shows|work=Bloomberg |access-date=May 2, 2019 }}</ref>

[[Lev Gudkov]], a sociologist at the [[Levada Center]], said, "Vladimir Putin's Russia of 2012 needs symbols of authority and national strength, however controversial they may be, to validate the newly authoritarian political order. Stalin, a despotic leader responsible for mass bloodshed but also still identified with wartime victory and national unity, fits this need for symbols that reinforce the current political ideology."<ref name="moscowtimes" />

Some positive sentiments can also be found elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. A 2012 survey commissioned by the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|Carnegie Endowment]] found 38% of [[Armenia]]ns concurring that their country "will always have need of a leader like Stalin".<ref name="moscowtimes">"[https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/poll-finds-stalins-popularity-high-21998 Poll Finds Stalin's Popularity High] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320024227/https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/poll-finds-stalins-popularity-high-21998 |date=20 March 2017 }}". ''[[The Moscow Times]]''. 2 March 2013.</ref><ref>"[http://carnegieeurope.eu/2013/03/01/stalin-puzzle-deciphering-post-soviet-public-opinion-pub-51075 The Stalin Puzzle: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402134541/http://carnegieeurope.eu/2013/03/01/stalin-puzzle-deciphering-post-soviet-public-opinion-pub-51075 |date=2 April 2017 }}". [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]]. 1 March 2013.</ref> A 2013 survey by [[Tbilisi State University|Tbilisi University]] found 45% of [[Georgia (country)|Georgians]] expressing "a positive attitude" toward Stalin.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21656615 |title=Georgia divided over Stalin 'local hero' status in Gori |website=BBC News |date=5 March 2013 |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719183921/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21656615 |archive-date=19 July 2018 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref>