Word: stalinism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...iconic Reichstag photo, however, was anything but a candid shot: It was stage-crafted from beginning to end. Khaldei, in fact, had been at his Tass headquarters in Moscow when Soviet forces captured Hitler's capital. The photographer had received orders from on high - possibly from Stalin himself, it was murmured - to rush there and produce a picture symbolizing the Soviet victory. The Red Army flag in the picture was brought to Berlin in Khaldei's luggage, and before settling on the Reichstag as his location, he first checked out Tempelhof Airport and the Brandenburg Gate. A Soviet combat team...
...Colton has written a fine biography of Russia's first postcommunist President. He has done his homework, going to the Urals, for example, to talk to individuals who knew Yeltsin in his poverty-stricken childhood. One finding: a grandfather of Yeltsin's was persecuted as a rich peasant when Stalin imposed agricultural collectivization. Colton also spoke to acquaintances from Yeltsin's period as Communist Party boss in Sverdlovsk. He justifiably concludes that Yeltsin was already a rambunctious politician before Gorbachev promoted him to head the Moscow City Party in 1985. Yeltsin was like a bull in a china shop...
Lucas details a 1984-style "History According to the Kremlin" now being taught in classrooms, according to which Josef Stalin, the greatest mass murderer in history, was a patriot who did what had to be done to defeat fascism. And he also examines the Kremlin's repeated use of its ample energy resources to threaten its Western-oriented neighbors. Most troubling is what Lucas calls "pipeline politics" - Moscow's plans to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline from the Shtokman Field in the Barents Sea to the German city of Greifswald; and its attempts to derail Western plans to install...
...impression that France has, in fact, already chosen commercial interests over human rights. This is a choice most countries tend to make. Stalin famously quipped, "The Pope? How many divisions has he got?" To plagiarize his formula today, one would say: "The Dalai Lama - how many contracts?" The Chinese, however, should not be too quick to celebrate their victory over hypocritical and mercantile democracies. The soft power of China - its ability to lead by example because people seek to emulate its success - has been seriously bruised in the last few weeks. And the Chinese leadership knows that their country needs...
...National Leader," or "Vozhd" in Russian, takes precedence over the constitutional head of state in the country's political tradition. Gryzlov pointedly used the English word "leader," rather than its Russian equivalent of Vozhd - because the Russian term is still closely associated with Stalin. The careful choice of words doesn't change the message, though. Indeed, some 70 years ago, urban legend has it that a little boy asked his father about Stalin. The father duly explained that Stalin was this country's Vozhd. "That's weird," the precocious progeny mused aloud. "I gathered from books that only primordial tribes...