At the marches held on May 9 this year, a number of large portraits of Joseph Stalin were carried both by grownups and by teens and children. Those portraits became conspicuous primarily against the background of the war of aggression that is being waged by the Russia Federation on Ukraine, close to Moldova’s borders. For a large part of society, the phenomenon generated bewilderment and concern as the crimes committed by this world tyrant of the 20th century, including in relation to Moldova and the Moldovans, are no longer a secret. The phenomena of Stalinization and de-Stalinization in a broader, pan-European context were discussed in IPN’s public debate “Stalinization and de-Stalinization in European context”.
According to Igor Boțan, the permanent expert of IPN’s project, said that Joseph Stalin was a revolutionary, a Marxist, since 1903 a Bolshevik, a gangster who robbed banks to use the money for revolutionary political purposes. He formed part of the first Bolshevik government after the putsch of November 7, 1917, serving as commissar for nationality affairs and then for state control. During April 1922 – February 1934, he held the post of secretary general of the Central Committee (CC) of the Bolshevik Communist Party (BCP) and then secretary of the CC until 1952. In 1941 – 1947, he served as the supreme commander of the armed forces. Since 1941 until March 1953, he headed the council of ministers of the USSR. He was the initiator of collectivization in 1927, of industrialization in 1928, of the mass terror after the murder of Kirov in 1934. Millions of people were destroyed during those events. In 1939, he preferred an alliance with Hitler against England and France, justifying it at the meeting of the political bureau of the BCP on August 19, 1939.
“He organized the deportation of at least ten small peoples and then the deportation of representatives of the most advanced sections of the peoples of the USSR, such as intellectuals, hardworking people, etc. He launched an anti-Semitist campaign, the so-called fight against cosmopolitism, which was followed by the “case of Jewish doctors” which was to end with the deportation of Jews from large Soviet cities to Siberia, but this was interrupted by the tyrant’s death,” stated the expert.
According to him, Stalinism was an authoritarian political system in the USSR of the end of the 1920s and the star of the 1950s and the main ideology. “Stalinism was characterized by an absolutist regime of personal power of Joseph Stalin, the domination of authoritarian-bureaucratic methods of management (administrative command system), excessive strengthening of the repressive functions of the state, merger of party and state bodies, strict ideological control over all the aspects of society, violation of the basic human rights and freedoms. Stalinism is one of the main forms of totalitarianism,” stated Igor Boțan.
Doctor of History Florin-Răzvan Mihai, scientific researcher of the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, said that there are multiple theses concerning Stalinism, but two ideas seem to be prevailing. “There are historians who consider that Stalin does not appear from nowhere, that Stalinism is the logical continuation of the line existing earlier, with reference to Lenin, who promoted several of the policies that were magisterially put into practice by Stalin, such as violence, including the way in which he solved the tsar problem. Reference is also made to the historical tradition of the Russian people, the political life of Russia from Ivan the Terrible, who became a very suggestive benchmark for what totalitarianism, violence against the inferiors used in a discretionary way mean. Surely, there were historians who personalized the problem of Stalinism and insisted on characteristics of his personality, insisting on his almost sick, even pathological character mentioned by particular authors. There were also authors who somehow justified what happened during Stalinism, suggesting that the appearance of socialism in that country under the scheme that was initially thought up by Marx and Engels wouldn’t have been possible in the absence of terror,” said the doctor of history.
Acceding to him, Stalinism has several characteristics that make it unique in the history of political thinking. “Stalin seems to be a great inventor, a Marxist thinker who meditates and makes essential contributions. His main theory of 1924 elaborates the theory of socialism in one country so as to later, in 1928, justify the terror that was started aggressively in the immediate period, and asserts that the class struggle appeared during the period of socialism building. These are the two essential contributions of Stalin. However, Stalin distinguished himself primarily through the practices of applying these theories. One of his features is the cult of personality that manifested itself in a specific way. In the economic sector, he insisted on the idea of directed economy with emphasis on the heavy industry. That idea had unfavorable consequences, primarily during the postwar period, including in Romania, including the great terror that remains one of the “stains” in Stalin’s CV, which caused millions of victims,” said Florin-Răzvan Mihai
Doctor of Hstory Octavian Țîcu, university lecturer, said Lenin’s big merit was the fact that he knew to capitalize on the social revolt by turning it into a communist construct. “If an explanation is to be provided as to the carrying of photos and portraits of Stalin in central Chisinau and all over Russia, we can say that we are witnessing re-Stalinization. Three important elements of Stalinism should be taken here into account. It goes to the Stalinist model of modernizing the Soviet Unjoin, which was an absolutely unique and exceptional one. It was a mobilization model by which millions of people were sacrificed, but Stalin and the Soviet Union achieved what they aimed to – to turn the Soviet Unjoin into an industrialized state that was equal to the U.S. and Germany. The roots of Stalinization and neo-Stalinism should be looked for in the victory in World War II. There was no global problem in which Stalin wouldn’t have been involved and which he wouldn’t have wanted to transform. The Stalinization of the world is the third big element. This globalization made so that one third of the world’s population lived under communism. This communization of the world was inherited from Stalinism,” stated Octavian Țîcu.
According to the historian, these three elements are the foundation stone of Stalinism from the Russian perspective, while Putin did nothing else but reconcile a Russian historic tradition that existed before Stalinism with Stalinism itself, which laid the basis of the Putinist regime. “The Bolshevik Communist Party was one of the most important keys to the success of Stalinism. This was an unordinary issue of the 20th century. That democratic centralism that characterized this party, together with devotion, sacrifice and extraordinary loyalty. Nether Lenin nor Stalin were original. I consider the key to Leninism and Stalinism is in the great intellectual debate of the Russian world of the end of the 19th century, between Slavophiles and Westerners. The Marxists from Russia and the Bolsheviks were supporters of the third way. The Bolshevik model is a thesis and an antithesis of the West. One the one hand, bolshevism took important material parts of the Western civilization, like industrialization, culturalizaiton, alphabetization. On the other hand, it was anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalist, anti-West and that was actually the essence of the Russian society before World War I.
The public debate entitled “Stalinization and de-Stalinization in European context” was the 14th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
Impactul trecutului
See related articles:
- 100 years under sign of MASSR. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Oppressive regime in Transnistrian region speculates on historical factors
- Alexandru Postica: Language problems and economic interests are persistent challenges in Transnistrian region
- Anatol Țăranu: Vulgar Moldovenism born in MASSR continues to live in Moldova’s realities
- Anneli Ute Gabanyi: Moldova has always been of great geostrategic importance for Russia
- Igor Boțan: Moldova’s biggest threat comes from disinformation campaigns
- Ion Valer Xenofontov: Ideas from secret protocol to Soviet-Nazi pact still used today
- Moldova from Ribbentrop-Molotov to Independence. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Soviet’s actions in relation to the Bessarabians in 1940 are ‘occupation” not “liberation”
- Historian Dumitru Lisnic: Soviets brought their own people to Bessarabia for administrative positions
- Anatol Petrencu: Soviets imposed their way of thinking and way of life in MSSR
- Ex-history teacher from Șerpeni: Village in 1944 was completely destroyed
- Effects of Iasi-Chisinau Operation 80 years later. IPN Debate
- Igor Boțan: Soviets’ 1940 actions in relation to Bessarabians were not “liberation”
- Anatol Țăranu: Annexation of Bessarabia on June 28, 1940 was an agreement between two dictators
- Day of June 28, 1940 between celebration and catastrophe. IPN Debate
- Andrei Curăraru: Deportations were aimed at creating society without values
- Lidia Pădureac: Soviet state committed crimes against humanity
- Alecu Reniță: Deportations must keep us vigilant and as far away as possible from Russia - a struggling monster
- Decapitation and uprooting of nation through deportations. IPN Debate
- Igor Boțan: Propaganda must be combated by imbedding critical thinking
- Nicolae Mihai: In totalitarian regimes, citizens no longer enjoy rights and freedoms
- Festive practices and identity engineering in (post)totalitarian regimes. IPN debate
- Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu: In Russia there is an authoritarian regime with totalitarian tendencies
- Igor Boțan: All legislatures in Moldova were pro-European or had periods when they promoted accession
- EU enlargement after collapse of USSR: causes and effects. Moldova’s lesson. IPN debate
- Andrei Curăraru: EU’s ambition is to become an important political center
- Anatol Petrencu: Collapse of Soviet Union was a triumph for countries annexed by force
- Cristian Manolachi: We must discern in avalanche of political messages. 2024 is a complicated election year
- Political mythologies in history and in actuality. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Political mythology in Ukraine war has been exploited to the maximum
- Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu: Authoritarian regimes are effective in disseminating propaganda
- Valentin Constantinov: Today we speak Romanian due to verticality of population of Bessarabia in 1812
- Igor Boțan: Literary language and official language are brought to highest level that unites us all
- Vasile Șoimaru: We are Romanians on both banks of the Prut
- Long path home of the Romanian language. IPN debate
- Statements about Russia terrorist attack: Terror breeds only terror
- Igor Boțan: Moldovan authorities must ensure communication with citizens from left bank of the Nistru
- Alexandru Cerbu about war of 1992: Bodies were lying on the streets in Tighina as in Bucha
- Victor Juc: The Nistru armed conflict was caused deliberately
- 32 years of an unfinished war. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Danger of repeat of horrors that society experienced under communist regime still exists
- Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu: We must detach ourselves from Soviet past and build a European society
- History, an international antidote to political repression. IPN debate
- Flori Bălănescu: In the absence of a Nuremberg-type trial, we cannot talk about condemnation of communism
- Alexandru Postica: Victims of political repression receive far too small recompence against terror they went through
- Role of history in forming person and modernizing society. IPN debate
- Igor Botan: You cannot build a future if you don’t know your past
- Ana Bîtcă: By informing students about political repression, we want to avoid repeat of past mistakes
- Igor Boțan: The Gulag was Bolsheviks’ solution for controlling population’s protest movement
- Ludmila Cojocaru: Soviet system meant repression, extermination, enslavement of population
- Lidia Pădureac: The Gulag was used to destroy people’s uprightness
- GULAG phenomenon: genesis, manifestation, lessons. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Budapest Memorandum would have been very important if those who signed it had considered it binding
- Radu Burduja: Ukraine must draw conclusions after signing Budapest Memorandum
- Ion Negrei: Russia no longer enjoys credibility internationally
- Failure of Budapest Memorandum. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Ukraine is key to final Transnistrian conflict settlement
- Natalia Albu: Frozen conflicts mean also a low level of quality of human life
- Octavian Țîcu: Moscow wants Moldova to be Transnistrized
- Frozen conflicts: genesis, dangers, settlement. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Phenomena that occurred in USSR before World War II were typical also for MASSR
- Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu: Thousands of people were executed only because they were regarded as a possible source of opposition
- Stalinist repression in MASSR and memory of victims of totalitarian communist regime. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: To better understand how Union of 1918 occurred, we should analyze circumstances in which this occurred
- Alexandru Arseni: Governments in Chisinau and in Bucharest should recognize Union of 1918
- Ion Varta: After Russian Empire collapsed, Romanian national movement evolved into national liberation movement
- Great Union of 1918: lessons for past, present and future. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: When we speak about collapse of Constituent Assembly, we should consider consequences of this for Bessarabia
- Nicolae Enciu: Soviet society was constituted as an antipode of Western society
- Collapse of Constituent Assembly and of chance to democratize Soviet Russia. Effects on country and world. IPN debate
- Anatol Petrencu: In current Russia, there is no democracy
- Igor Boțan: Romania is also obliged to make effort for Moldova to manage to integrate into EU
- Alecu Reniță: Russia is a threat not only to ex-Soviet states, but also to whole Europe
- Igor Șarov: A continuous struggle is led to secure European integration desideratum
- European genealogy tree of Moldova. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Cold War ended because everyone realized what Soviet power actually was
- Ion Valer Xenofontov: Cold War lesson - to win with modesty and to lose with grace
- Anneli Ute Gabanyi: USSR wanted to impose same thinking system on people
- Lessons of Cold War. IPN debate
- Vitalie Stoian: Warsaw Part always intervened inside its borders, not outside them
- Anatol Țăranu: Warsaw Treaty was nothing else but “collective policeman”
- Igor Boțan: Warsaw Pact was a reply to reply
- Warsaw Pact: History without propaganda. IPN debate
- Radu Burduja: NATO was and will remain a successful alliance
- Igor Boțan: Soviet Union became totalitarian and wanted to conquer whole world
- Victor Juc: NATO enlargement occurs at request of states that consider themselves vulnerable
- NATO: History without propaganda. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Russians’ rhetoric on use of nuclear weapons shows that things go bad
- Pavel Moraru: Signing of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact led to start of World War II
- Mihai Țurcanu: Russia wants to change international order by force
- Truth and lie about beginning of World War II. IPN debate
- Virgiliu Pâslariuc: European development model is a security and prosperity guarantee
- Price and effects of Independence. Comparative study (1877 vs. 1991. IPN debate
- Ion Varta: Russian factor was every time fateful for our national interest
- Igor Boțan: Role of intellectuality in obtaining Independence was prolific
- Ion Negrei: Putsch of October 1917 didn’t enjoy support among population of Bessarabia
- Igor Boțan: We are witnessing third stage of dismemberment of Soviet Union
- Marin Gherman: Communism was a catastrophe for previous century
- USSR: Born and Destroyed by Putsches. IPN debate
- Stalinization and de-Stalinization of Moldovan society. IPN debate
- Ludmila Cojocaru: Keeping memory of Stalinist crimes necessitates effort from state and society
- Igor Boțan: After Stalin’s death, Stalinization is only a kind of phantom
- Florin Abraham: Historical memory cannot be built without state support
- Igor Boțan: Stalinist elites devour each other, this being an essential quality of Stalinism
- Octavian Țîcu: Stalinization – imbedding of a series of features typical of Soviet Union
- Florin-Răzvan Mihai: Putinism poses a big threat
- Ion Manole: Passivity of international community to crimes of communism generated Ukraine war
- Kakhovka Dam: Why are laws and customs of war powerless? IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Possession of nuclear weapon makes Russia ignore international law norms
- Anatol Petrencu: Some nations fight without scruple
- Igor Boțan: Those who took part in deportation of people from Bessarabia were ideologically indoctrinated
- Viorica Olaru: The Kremlin administration is similar to the KGB
- “Stalinist deportations: echo of the past, for present and future”. IPN debate
- Alexandru Postica: Deportations should be treated in a broader context
- Mihail Druță: It is justified to celebrate Europe Day on May 9
- Anatol Țăranu: Moldova cannot become European state by keeping Soviet symbols
- Igor Boțan: It is a big mistake to reveal World War II events that suit only a particular side
- Victory Day: between reconciliation, antagonization and destabilization? IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Acknowledging organized famine is important for learning lessons
- Museographer of Avdarma: 800 people died from hunger in this village in 1946-1947
- Famine of 1946-1947. Vasile Șoimaru: People were dispossessed of everything and were murdered
- Lidia Pădureac: While Moldovan SSR was dying from starvation, Soviet Union was exporting grain
- Organized famine of 1946-1947: victims, murderers, memory. IPN debate
- Igor Boțan: Fascism, in its milder version, and Bolshevism were heresies of socialism
- Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu: Society should be attentive so as not to allow authoritarian-totalitarian deviations
- Alexandru Cosmescu: Fascism, Stalinism and Nazism created external enemies in order to achieve their goals
- What do Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism have in common? IPN debate
- Alecu Reniță on 1903 pogrom: Authorities failed to stop bloodshed
- Pogrom of 1903: executioners, victims and lessons. IPN debate
- Andrei Kushko: Not Moldovans, but imperial functionaries triggered Chisinau program
- Igor Boțan: Chisinau program was an outburst of anti-Semitism in Russian Empire
- Igor Boțan: Accession to EU is alternative to Russian world for Moldova
- Ion Negrei: Moldova should connect to European space for good
- Anatol Țăranu: There are affinities between aggressive policy of Russian empire and current regime of Putin
- Fate of peripheries of empires. Quo vadis, Moldova? IPN debate
- Mihai Țurcanu: “Stockholm syndrome” replaced feeling of national identity in many compatriots
- Igor Boțan: Putin’s drama is that he does not have ideology or economic force or army
- Maria Pilchin: Putin teaches his people to die because he was unable to teach them to live
- What did we celebrate and why did we celebrate on February 23? IPN debate