Fragmented Memory
Stalin and Stalinism in Today’s Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The Stalin era is very much present in Russia today, albeit for the most part in an idealised form. When it is equated with the war, Stalin stands for victory; when the Great Terror is recalled, the victims are front and centre. The crimes and the perpetrators are not part of the discussion. This has as much to do with the lack of a legal basis for prosecution as with the fact that differentiating between perpetrator and victim is often difficult. In addition, official history policy marginalises and trivialises terror as a feature of Stalinism.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2017, pp. 81–88)