07.05.2024, Moscow.
Soviet leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin became a consensus figure between the Whites and the Reds; he ensured the country’s revival after the collapse of the Russian Empire, said philosopher, political scientist, the leader of the Essence of Time movement Sergey Kurginyan on April 27 on the Right to Know program on the TVC channel.
Maxim Yusin, a columnist from the Russian newspaper Kommersant, when commenting to Sergey Kurginyan’s call for consolidation in Russian society made during the most recent episode of his author’s program Destiny, suggested to exclude or “cancel out” the most extreme and controversial figures, such as philosopher Ivan Ilyn, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin who will never be forgiven by a number of people in the Russian Federation, as suggested the journalist. According to Yusin, Russia is going through too difficult of a moment for alienating this part of Russian society in such a way.
Kurginyan is convinced that Stalin is somewhere in the middle and more of a consensus figure for the Whites and the Reds, and he is far from being an extreme and controversial historical figure for the supporters of the “White Russia”. And if we judge figures of any era and with different views by their contribution to the existence of the Russian state, then Stalin’s contribution is enormous, while Ilyin hated the communists so much that he was ready to sacrifice the integrity of Russia to defeat them.
Kurginyan remembered what his mother, Soviet philologist Mariya Kurginyan, said – that only very stupid people could erase Stalin from the victory in the Great Patriotic War, since it is impossible to win in spite of or without the commander-in-chief. According to her story, when the nomenklatura or the bureaucrats fled Moscow in October 1941, the tragic mood among the capital’s residents changed after the news that Stalin would remain in Moscow.
Under his leadership the country was victorious, under his rule the industrialization was achieved, Kurginyan emphasized.
“It was Stalin who became a consensus figure between the Whites and the Reds; and Anton Denikin, a Russian commander in the White Movement during the Russian Civil War, realizing that Stalin won the war and what a superpower had emerged, said, ‘Russian troops are in Berlin, I’m done’,” recalled the political scientist.
“A man with a heavy Caucasian accent, unfairly slandered, incredibly talented, amazingly cruel; for some reason he fell in love with this huge empire, he became the one who completed the resurrection of the Russian phoenix from the ashes after the collapse of the Russian Empire. He was this man who did it all,” added the expert.
According to Kurginyan, the public view of its national leaders is determined not by the fate of individuals or certain ethnic groups, but by “the very existence of a nation that is now in such a danger as has never been before. The nation’s existence!”
“The ultimate measure is the state of the country. Patriotism means that in the name of the country, its prosperity and survival, you will disregard any personal obstacles, whether they concern certain ethnic groups which, by the way, also acted contraversially, or whether they concern certain individuals and particular personal lives,” – said Kurginyan, emphasizing that it is impossible to remove Stalin’s contribution to building the country, it is too great.
In his opinion, Stalin can be criticized for only one thing – he did not ensure the succession of power. After him, Nikita Khrushchev came to power, and after him all the late Soviet leaders.
“But, Stalin’s achievements are colossal – and he is a central figure in the nation’s identity,” says Kurginyan.
With the same measure one must approach, for example, Alexander III, who, despite his reactionary nature, initiated a colossal breakthrough for Russia’s development, unlike Alexander II and Nicholas II. If the central criteria is the state of the nation, then the criticism of Alexander III for being reactionary must be discarded. The same consensus figures are such military leaders as Skobelev and Suvorov.
According to Kurginyan, as for Trotsky and neotrotskism, such a radical “Red” figure must be discarded.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
