Sean has been wondering whether it would be a good idea to bury Lenin or not, and he concludes with an interesting idea on Lenin’s importance in Russia, an idea not commonly heard in the West:
I think what Lenin stands for is changing in Russia. For better or for worse, he is becoming more like Peter the Great: a firm and decisive, but necessary ruler who thrust Russia into modernity. But that is historical memory for you. A new historical narrative emerges at the moment of forgetting. Even the Lenins of the world can find their place in the genealogy of the present.
I think he’s probably correct and, further, I think Stalin is beginning to be viewed in the same light.
October 7th, 2005 at 10:03 am
Russia is in such a state of confusion at the moment that they are clinging desperately to anything which reminds them of a time of perceived normalcy, even if this means whitewashing historical figures to suit.
October 10th, 2005 at 1:26 am
Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Lenin and Stalin. One mass murderer after another yet all rehabilitated after death because they “changed Russia toward modernization”?
Can we have a Russian Thomas Edison for once, instead?