Latest news with #Soviet
Canada Standard
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Canada Standard
An historical opportunity to liberate the future from polarization and division
Today the geopolitical relations between many nations are dominated by division and polarization. But culture, people and politics weren't always polarized and divided. More than two centuries ago, despite the spread of colonialist domination of European monarchies and other powers, a rapprochement between people and cultures was notable everywhere around the planet. People started to connect to one another, they moved and migrated from one region to another and from one continent to another. It was a period of convergence of people and culture as the planet was on the verge of globalization. During the Second World War, for the first time in human history, man in power used a mass destruction weapon, the nuclear bombs, and exterminated the population of two entire downtown urban centers in Japan. Then, after the war, humanity witnessed the monstrous consequences of the global division and polarization with the nuclear arms race between the two blocs, the East and the West. The planet was divided between two ideologies positioned to act as instruments of domination. Each side accumulated thousands of weapons of mass destruction. Through the exercise of violence a minority imposes their conditions on the social whole in each blocs. During this period, polarization among cultures, people, and nations accelerated. Then as global polarization grew, social fear and paranoia also grew around the world. For decades, global fear of total alienation was incorporated into the lives of generations through education and cultural production (mass media and movies). This phenomenon produced a huge psychological impact on the population. By the end of the 21st century, humanity witnessed a detente of the geopolitical tensions between the West and the USSR, the two military superpowers primarily responsible for a frenzied arms race. During this period, the Soviet empire fell, but there was no violence or destruction. This moment allowed great achievement in the convergence of peoples, cultures, beliefs, and ideas. It allowed the Western countries and the ex-USSR to open a dialogue and initiated concerted actions for global nuclear disarmament. In short, we witnessed the recognition of two great peoples and cultures. People understood that openness and dialogue are decisive factors in the building of conditions for the evolution of cultures and human consciousness. But a few years later the process of polarization resurfaced as the tensions between major military superpowers rose again everywhere around the planet and the global military budget increased year after year. According to estimates by the United Nations Security Council, Today a quarter of the world's population lives in conflict-affected regions which corresponds to 2 billion people. The UNDP's Multidimensional Poverty Index has revealed in 2025 that nearly 40% of people are experiencing multidimensional poverty and live in countries exposed to violent conflict. These figures demonstrate that conflict pushes people and countries into poverty or keeps them there. In fact, many governments have sidestepped the basic human needs such as public education, universal healthcare, clean water, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and choose to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into armament, anti-missiles devices and the maintenance of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons. Jocelyn Gardner, a Concordia university student in Montreal published The pitfalls of a polarized nation in the Link (Concordia University student newspaper). In this article Gardner gave his point of view on the acceleration of polarization in society and mentioned several researchers studying the phenomenon. He explains, (...) the competitive and isolating nature of capitalism has penetrated its teeth into a plethora of societal structures, making polarization a key principle of America's hyper-individualistic society that promotes contention over community. (Source: The Link) According to Jennifer McCoy, from the International Catalan Institute for Peace, there is a growing sentiment of competitiveness in democracy. "If you win, I lose" this phenomena accelerated the polarization among political parties and powerful groups of men and businesses. In many contexts opposing sides are seen as rivals to be defeated rather than negotiated and persuaded, said McCoy. In an article published in the American Psychological Association magazine, Community outreach manager Kirk Waldroff explains that existential fear sits at the heart of polarization. Political parties perpetuate this with distorted perceptions, which are driven by fear of the other, said Waldroff. Kirk Schneider, a PhD professor at Saybrook University in California, also links polarization with fear: "Existential fear appears to be at the heart of what drives polarization. One reason we tend to become fixated and polarized is because of individual and collective trauma which is associated with a profound sense of insignificance. In this state, people may feel that they don't matter and fear "ultimately being wiped away or extinguished". (...) if existential fear is indeed a root of polarization, our sometimes-warped view of the other side can perpetuate it. Research indicates that the divisiveness will continue to grow if fear of the other and the wounds fueling that fear are not addressed," says Schneider. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and philosopher, who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps (an experience that profoundly shaped his life and thought). Gives a poignant testament to the human spirit's ability to find meaning even in the most extreme situations and moments of profound sense of insignificance. His story, Man's Search for Meaning, has become a classic of existential literature and an essential testament to human resilience and the search for meaning in the face of adversity. At the heart of Frankl's experience, we find the conviction that humankind is capable of finding meaning in life, even in conditions of extreme suffering, fear and despair. Perhaps it's time to understand how the geopolitical tensions and the polarization between the superpowers are generating repetition of endless violence in human history. Perhaps it's time to understand how the image of the human being projected by the old institutions conditioned our perceptions, our beliefs and the way we look at the future and at each other. The projections of fear into the future Today, many politicians and business leaders project futuristic representations marked with fear, violence and wars onto social media, and in doing so, they influence tens of millions of people. They fuel division and polarizing rhetoric among their people. They fuel fear of others by creating enemies. They maintain old prejudices about human nature and human consciousness. Their look upon the human being limits the capacities of their own people to use nonviolent means to resolve personal and social conflict. Their view of humanity is linked to a form of zoological ideology where only the fittest and the strongest will survive. It's terrifying! Perhaps it's time to recognize that geopolitical tensions between military superpowers are not only visible in the physical world through threats, violence and wars. But these tensions are registered by our external senses and penetrate into our body, and generate fear in our consciousness and in our representations of the future. According to Dario Ergas, in his latest book, he explained how polarization and division are rooted in the social historical configuration of the time and generate profound beliefs about human life and the representation of the future. These beliefs are lived as if they were the obvious truth, but today they are in crisis. Ergas has participated in the founding of the Humanist Party in Chile during the struggle against the military dictatorship in 1984 and the creation of the Latin American Humanist Forum in 2001. He explains that in a moment of social despair, a rupture of beliefs generates new responses in front of a danger. A new way of being conscious and a new meaning of the future emerge. He characterizes the present situation as a moment where a certain type of collective mentality rooted in the social historical configuration is disintegrating day by day. Humanity and consciousness in danger In the recent book, Farrell explains the urgency to address one of the most pressing existential themes, the future. She explained how in this polarized world, we are not aware that more than 2,000 nuclear warheads are aimed directly at us every day. But the activity of our instincts of self-preservation are always mobilized. According to Farrell the consciousness seeks to escape the stimuli of pain and suffering registered from the threat of mass destruction through a mechanism called the reveries. The reveries compensate for our fear of pain, suffering, death and massive extinction. According to our research in great danger and despair, the system of vital tensions of the human species is mobilized by the activity of the instincts of self-preservation in order to protect the psychophysical structure. F called this phenomenon the collective state of consciousness in danger. Farrell explained, as the sensations of danger and terror get more intense, human beings experience disorientation towards the future and psychological distress regarding their meaning. Here a summary of our observation I understand that I live in a society that makes me believe that events in the world take place outside of me and seem to have no connection with my body and my consciousness and the mass media and social institutions propose representations that reinforce the belief that the world is experienced as external to the body and consciousness. Yet my body is also seen as part of the world since it acts in the world and receives action from the world. Then, I observe that there is a relationship between my biography and the events taking place in the world. I experience through my body these events that are processed by my consciousness. I understand that my body and my consciousness allow me to act in the world. Thus, the actions of others can also affect my body, my mind, and my consciousness. I recognize that we are unaware of the influence of nuclear bombs on the human consciousness because, from birth, we are immersed in a state that gives us the illusion that this situation is normal. The state of consciousness in danger is formalized in childhood thanks to a structural link maintained by the intentionality of consciousness. We call this structure, the subject-consciousness-world. This structure is developed as the child's consciousness expands from stimuli that are coming from his environment. The stimuli of pain and suffering are captured at all times by the external and internal senses of human beings. These stimuli are translated into impulses by the sensory apparatus and launched into signals into the psyche. Consequently, these signals act on the vital tension system of the human species by increasing psychological tension. Thus, we say that the activity of individual and species-specific self-preservation instincts mobilizes responses from the vegetative center (1) to defend the entire subject-consciousness-world structure. Being immersed in a state of consciousness in danger, we have no records (sensations and memory) of the self-preservation instinct's activity. But the psyche still receives signals indicating that the psychophysical structure is in danger. Consequently, these signals act on the body by activating tension points distributed throughout the intra-body, which we call the vital tension system. (Un sens de la vie qui defie la peur de l'extinction massive, p. 56) Farrell explained how these signals and the psychological distress are interpreted and translated into images by many people who have an artistic sensibility or a cultural sensitivity. Indeed, artists and movie producers translate these signals they perceive in the human mind into narratives. They translate the vital tensions of the human species through dystopias that present a devastating future with depictions of mass extinction of humanity and stories of sociopaths. While others interpret these signals as the need to protect themselves and their cultures against future threats. They protect themselves from other cultures and potential enemies by proposing to exclude, eliminate, or even annihilate the other culture. Others, like Farrell, interpret these signals as the need to change the direction of things in order to liberate the mind of the human being from fear and suffering, amplifying the operational freedom of consciousness and amplifying the space of representation (3). The main interest of Farrell's research is the demonstration of the possible intentional change in the subject-consciousness-world structure, thanks to personal and social actions that are driven to overcome the suffering in oneself and in others. An intentional change driven by the aspiration of giving a new meaning to the future. A future without polarization and division, generating violence and fear. A future where people would transform the world and transform themselves. In short, F quest in the meaning of life is not only about my own liberation process, but about a broader process characterized by a historic opportunity. The opportunity to free humanity from the danger of global annihilation and to free the human being from the state of consciousness in danger in which he is immersed and limit his consciousness and his actions in the world. _____________________________________________________________ Source: Books Ergas, DarioLa Mirada y su Profundidad, The look and its Depth, Park of Study and Reflection Punta de Vacas, September 2019 Farrell, Anne, Un sens de la vie qui defie la fatalite de l'extinction massive, Henri Oscar Communication, Montreal, 2025 Puledda Salvatore, On Being Human, Interpretations of Humanism from The Renaissance to the Present, New Humanism Series, Latitude Press, San Diego, 1997. Others media: The polarized mind: Why it's killing us and what we can do about it, 2013, University Professors Press, .Kirk Schneider, a PhD professor at Saybrook University in California. Healing the political divide: How did we become such a divided nation, and how can psychologists help us bridge the gap?, American Psychological Association, Kirk Waldroff. Polarization as a Global Phenomenon talk with Jennifer McCoyJennifer McCoy, from the International Catalan Institute for Peace The pitfalls of a polarized nation, the Link, Concordia University Montreal, Jocelyn Gardner Themes Centers of responses: Abstraction or conceptual synthesis referring to the different activities of the human being, which encompass the work of different physical points. This conceptual synthesis refers to the mechanism of the psyche that provides a response to the world of sensation. The response is the manifestation of the activity of the center towards the external and - or internal environment. We can differentiate the response centers, either by activity or by the function they fulfill. The centers are in no way separate and work in structure and dynamics, producing a register of concomitance between them; a certain type of energy circulates between them, which we will provisionally call nervous energy, they work with registers of their own, through the internal senses and through the connection between the centers and consciousness. The responses of the centers towards the environment have different speeds. The intellectual center is the slowest while the vegetative center is the fastest - in short, it is the vegetative center that mobilizes the response of the instincts of preservation in the formalization of the state of consciousness in danger. The work of the centers has a structural tendency that is recorded as inner unity. When this work is experienced in different directions, a register of inner contradiction appears. This dysfunction, opposition of the activity of the centers, is recorded as inner pain, as an increase in internal tension. Inner unity is summarized as: thinking, feeling and acting in the same direction. (Amman, 2004 p.314, French edition) Vegetative center: It regulates the internal activity of the body by giving balancing responses to the imbalances produced and by sending signals to the other centers, so that they are mobilized to satisfy its needs, to avoid the pain that one feels or to prolong the pleasure that one experiences. From another point of view, we say that it is the base of the psyche, where the instincts of individual and species preservation are activated; these instincts, excited by signals corresponding to pain and pleasure, are mobilized for the defense and expansion of the entire structure. There is no register that indicates that a part or the entire structure is in danger (instincts are not devices but activities). The vegetative center is mobilized by images of the cenesthetic register caused by fatigue, hunger, fear, threat, and by reflexes coming from the sex. The vegetative center almost completely avoids the mechanisms of consciousness, but its work is captured by the internal senses whose signal, upon reaching consciousness, is transformed into an image that can mobilize the involuntary parts of the other centers. (Amman, 2004, p.163, French edition) Space of representation: is a kind of mental screen where images, formed from sensory stimuli, memory stimuli and the activity of consciousness are projected. In addition to serving as a screen, it is formed from all the internal representations of the cenesthetic sense. The representational space has markers, a volume and a depth that allow us to situate, depending on the location of the image, whether the phenomena come from the internal or external world. (source: Amman, 2004, p. 281, French edition) Human landscape: it is a type of exterior landscape made up of people, and also of human facts and intentions concretized in objects. It is important to emphasize that mentioning the landscape always includes the one who looks at it; on the contrary, in other cases, when we speak of society, it appears to us as exempt from any interpretation of the gaze of oneself. (Silo, 1996, p.56) Source: Pressenza
Boston Globe
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Boston Ballet takes a leap of faith with Jean-Christophe Maillot's ‘Roméo et Juliette'
Boston has seen many versions of Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. The Kirov brought Leonid Lavrovsky's 1940 Soviet première staging to the Wang Center in 1992. Over the past 40 years, Boston Ballet has offered versions by Choo San Goh, Daniel Pelzig, Rudi van Dantzig, and John Cranko. Now, as its 2024–25 season closer, the Ballet is presenting the stripped-down, streamlined creation that Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo director Jean-Christophe Maillot devised in 1996, and it's safe to say Boston has never seen a 'Romeo and Juliet' like this one. Thursday's opening night at the Citizens Opera House slid off the rails from time to time, but stupendous performances from Advertisement Prokofiev's score is a literal evocation of Shakespeare's play; that's why, regardless of choreography, stagings of the ballet tend to the traditional, with sumptuous Renaissance costumes and sets, a carnival atmosphere in the town square, and lots of swordplay. 'Roméo et Juliette' goes its own way. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's sliding white panels and ramps and blocks conjure the backdrop for a dream sequence; Dominique Drillot's atmospheric lighting sets the emotional tone for each scene. Jérôme Kaplan dresses the Montagues in pale tones and the Capulets in darker shades, everything long and flowing and floppy, no two outfits quite alike. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's sliding white backdrop and Dominique Drillot's atmospheric lighting provide emotion and contrast in each scene. Rosalie O'Connor The Prince, Lord Capulet, and Lord and Lady Montague have been eliminated from the cast, along with the Gypsies, the market wares, and anything resembling a sword or dagger. The full score can last close to 150 minutes; here, about a half hour has been removed, mostly ensemble numbers. Thursday's performance, with an intermission after act one and a pause between acts two and three, ran a reasonable 2½ hours. The Boston Ballet Orchestra under music director Mischa Santora was in top form; the erotic Knights' Dance in particular had the weight and accent it needs and doesn't always get. Advertisement 'Roméo et Juliette' opens with the credits — including the performance's principal cast — projected on a scrim while the orchestra plays the Introduction, a nice touch. When the curtain rises, we see Friar Laurence being hoisted aloft, in a crucified position, by two 'acolytes.' Maillot's conceit is that the story is being narrated by the friar, who's racked by regret at having failed the star-crossed lovers. It's a bold idea, given that he's a very minor presence in the score, but it's not a good one. Wearing a clerical collar and acting more like the Revivalist in Martha Graham's 'Appalachian Spring' than Shakespeare's humble Franciscan, this Friar Laurence stalks the action in one-dimensional anguish, his silent screams powerless to affect the outcome. It would be the same ballet, only better, without him. Maillot's contemporary choreography adds to a "Romeo and Juliet" unlike any other performed in Boston before. Rosalie O'Connor Maillot's version still has much to recommend it. His contemporary choreography is, like the costuming, flowing and floppy, but it has an angular quality that suits the music. His Romeo and Juliet are giddy, dizzy, frolicking teenagers; one moment she's backing off when he tries to kiss her, the next she's kissing him. In the balcony scene Thursday, Chae and Cirio were all speed and spontaneity, and their nuances made conventional ballet partnering seem generic. Advertisement A slinky, slit-skirted Rosaline (Emma Topalova on Thursday), who like Juliet is a Capulet, shines as Romeo's first love before a spiky Tybalt (Yue Shi) intervenes. Maillot's jittery, overworked Nurse (Courtney Nitting) is comic but not ridiculous; a sassy Mercutio (Sun Woo Lee) and a peacemaking Benvolio (Daniel R. Durrett) get room to ramble in the 'Masks' prelude to the Capulet party. Lady Capulet ( The delivery of the tragedies in the ballet's second and third acts occasionally feels out of place and uneven. Rosalie O'Connor Acts two and three are less rewarding. A slapstick puppet show in the square anticipates the deaths to come. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, slapstick Mercutio's prolonged death agony, a highlight of the score and a showpiece for the dancer, is cut. Romeo's pursuit of Tybalt is enacted in slow motion, a neat counterpoint to the lickety-split music, but the eventual brutal strangling seems out of place. Maillot is, again, at his best with Romeo and Juliet in the lovers' farewell, where she slaps him for killing Tybalt before falling into his arms and coaxing him back to bed. By now, though, the Nurse's idiosyncrasies and Lady Capulet's histrionics have begun to wear thin. An underused Paris exits the reluctant Juliet's bedroom and is never seen again. After a perplexing sequence with Friar Laurence and the acolytes that has nothing to do with the all-important potion, Juliet in bed becomes Juliet in the tomb. Romeo appears and rams his head into the base of the bier; Juliet wakes and, with Friar Laurence looking on helplessly, strangles herself with a long red rope of sheet that she seems to have pulled from Romeo's body. No Capulets or Montagues arrive to reconcile. Watching this bleak dénouement, you could sympathize with Prokofiev's original impulse to rewrite Shakespeare and give the ballet a happy ending. Advertisement ROMÉO ET JULIETTE Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Sets by Ernest Pignon-Ernest. Costumes by Jérôme Kaplan. Lighting by Dominique Drillot. Presented by Boston Ballet. With the Boston Ballet Orchestra conducted by Mischa Santora. At Citizens Opera House, through June 8. Tickets $32-$232. 617-695-6955, Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at
7 hours ago
- Politics
A statue of Stalin is unveiled in the Moscow subway as Russia tries to revive the dictator's legacy
MOSCOW -- A monument to Josef Stalin has been unveiled at one of Moscow's busiest subway stations, the latest attempt by Russian authorities to revive the legacy of the brutal Soviet dictator. The sculpture shows Stalin surrounded by beaming workers and children with flowers. It was installed at the Taganskaya station to mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the sprawling subway known for its mosaics, chandeliers and other ornate decorations that was built under Stalin. It replaces an earlier tribute that was removed in the decade following Stalin's 1953 death in a drive to root out his 'cult of personality' and reckon with decades of repression marked by show trials, nighttime arrests and millions killed or thrown into prison camps as 'enemies of the people.' Muscovites have given differing responses to the unveiling earlier this month, with some recalling how the country lived in fear under his rule. Many commuters took photos of the monument and some laid flowers beneath it. Aleksei Zavatsin, 22, told The Associated Press that Stalin was a 'great man" who had 'made a poor country into a superpower.' 'He raised the country from its knees,' he said. Activists from a Russian political movement that voices pro-democratic and nationalist views, protested by placing posters at the foot of the monument that quoted top politicians condemning the dictator. One poster, featuring President Vladimir Putin, cited him as bemoaning Stalin's 'mass crimes against the people," and saying his modernization of the USSR came at the price of 'unacceptable' repression. The unveiling came weeks after Putin signed a decree renaming the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad — as the city was called when the Soviet Red Army defeated Nazi German forces there in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Volgograd itself briefly reverted to its former name on May 8-9 for Victory Day celebrations and will be temporarily renamed five more times this year to mark related wartime anniversaries. Putin has invoked the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted five months and saw up to 2 million soldiers and civilians killed, as justification for Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Russian political analyst Pyotr Miloserdov said the Kremlin has used a broader drive to embrace Stalin's legacy to justify both the conflict in Ukraine and crackdown on dissent at home. 'Stalin was a tyrant, a despot, and that's what we need," he told AP. Authorities want to revive Stalin's image to popularize the idea of strongman rule, he added, and paint violence and repression as justified under extraordinary circumstances. 'This can lead to justifying any senseless, forceful actions. Under Stalin, this was allowed, there was a war. ... So, here is our special military operation, and now this is allowed too. This is simply an attempt to justify the use of force on people," Miloserdov said.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
A statue of Stalin is unveiled in the Moscow subway as Russia tries to revive the dictator's legacy
Photo: AP A monument to Josef Stalin has been unveiled at one of Moscow's busiest subway stations, the latest attempt by Russian authorities to revive the legacy of the brutal Soviet dictator. The sculpture shows Stalin surrounded by beaming workers and children with flowers. It was installed at the Taganskaya station to mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the sprawling subway known for its mosaics, chandeliers and other ornate decorations that was built under Stalin. It replaces an earlier tribute that was removed in the decade following Stalin's 1953 death in a drive to root out his "cult of personality" and reckon with decades of repression marked by show trials, nighttime arrests and millions killed or thrown into prison camps as "enemies of the people." Muscovites have given differing responses to the unveiling earlier this month, with some recalling how the country lived in fear under his rule. Many commuters took photos of the monument and some laid flowers beneath it. Aleksei Zavatsin, 22, told The Associated Press that Stalin was a "great man" who had "made a poor country into a superpower." "He raised the country from its knees," he said. Activists from a Russian political movement that voices pro-democratic and nationalist views, protested by placing posters at the foot of the monument that quoted top politicians condemning the dictator. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo One poster, featuring President Vladimir Putin, cited him as bemoaning Stalin's "mass crimes against the people," and saying his modernization of the USSR came at the price of "unacceptable" repression. The unveiling came weeks after Putin signed a decree renaming the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad - as the city was called when the Soviet Red Army defeated Nazi German forces there in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Volgograd itself briefly reverted to its former name on May 8-9 for Victory Day celebrations and will be temporarily renamed five more times this year to mark related wartime anniversaries. Putin has invoked the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted five months and saw up to 2 million soldiers and civilians killed, as justification for Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Russian political analyst Pyotr Miloserdov said the Kremlin has used a broader drive to embrace Stalin's legacy to justify both the conflict in Ukraine and crackdown on dissent at home. "Stalin was a tyrant, a despot, and that's what we need," he told AP. Authorities want to revive Stalin's image to popularize the idea of strongman rule, he added, and paint violence and repression as justified under extraordinary circumstances. "This can lead to justifying any senseless, forceful actions. Under Stalin, this was allowed, there was a war. ... So, here is our special military operation, and now this is allowed too. This is simply an attempt to justify the use of force on people," Miloserdov said.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
A statue of Stalin is unveiled in the Moscow subway as Russia tries to revive the dictator's legacy
A monument to Josef Stalin has been unveiled at one of Moscow's busiest subway stations, the latest attempt by Russian authorities to revive the legacy of the brutal Soviet dictator. The sculpture shows Stalin surrounded by beaming workers and children with flowers. It was installed at the Taganskaya station to mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the sprawling subway known for its mosaics, chandeliers and other ornate decorations that was built under Stalin. It replaces an earlier tribute that was removed in the decade following Stalin's 1953 death in a drive to root out his 'cult of personality' and reckon with decades of repression marked by show trials, nighttime arrests and millions killed or thrown into prison camps as 'enemies of the people.' Muscovites have given differing responses to the unveiling earlier this month, with some recalling how the country lived in fear under his rule. Many commuters took photos of the monument and some laid flowers beneath it. Aleksei Zavatsin, 22, told The Associated Press that Stalin was a 'great man" who had 'made a poor country into a superpower.' 'He raised the country from its knees,' he said. Activists from a Russian political movement that voices pro-democratic and nationalist views, protested by placing posters at the foot of the monument that quoted top politicians condemning the dictator. One poster, featuring President Vladimir Putin, cited him as bemoaning Stalin's 'mass crimes against the people," and saying his modernization of the USSR came at the price of 'unacceptable' repression. The unveiling came weeks after Putin signed a decree renaming the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad — as the city was called when the Soviet Red Army defeated Nazi German forces there in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Volgograd itself briefly reverted to its former name on May 8-9 for Victory Day celebrations and will be temporarily renamed five more times this year to mark related wartime anniversaries. Putin has invoked the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted five months and saw up to 2 million soldiers and civilians killed, as justification for Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Russian political analyst Pyotr Miloserdov said the Kremlin has used a broader drive to embrace Stalin's legacy to justify both the conflict in Ukraine and crackdown on dissent at home. 'Stalin was a tyrant, a despot, and that's what we need," he told AP. Authorities want to revive Stalin's image to popularize the idea of strongman rule, he added, and paint violence and repression as justified under extraordinary circumstances. 'This can lead to justifying any senseless, forceful actions. Under Stalin, this was allowed, there was a war. ... So, here is our special military operation, and now this is allowed too. This is simply an attempt to justify the use of force on people," Miloserdov said.
