Soviet nostalgia and Stalin’s lingering presence

Mar 12, 2021 Estonian Life No. 10 2021

The Moscow city government, on February 19 announced an online, week-long vote for Moscow residents, on whether to restore the statue of Soviet secret police chief Felix Dzerzhinsky onto Lubyanka Square or place a new statue there of 13th century Russian Prince Alexander Nevsky.

Russian’s are deeply divided as to whose memory should be rekindled and to whom honour bestowed. The post- Revolution years witnessed the horrific Red Terror. Dzerzhinsky, a Polish-born Communist revolutionary was a central figure in this massacre before dying in 1926.

Nevsky’s importance is tied to his historic reputation as a hero of anti-Western Russian patriotic resistance, a reputation that has significant resonance in Putin’s Russia. As a prince of the historic city of Novgorod, then a major trading centre between St Petersburg and Moscow, he is memorialized for repelling an invasion of German Teutonic Knights in 1242. His memory is blessed with Russian Orthodox Church sainthood.

Laas Leivat, Toronto

Soviet nostalgia and Stalin’s lingering presence

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