[from JRL] Los Angeles Times December 10, 2001 Even Amid His Family, Debate Persists Over Stalin Communism: Half a century after dictator's death, there is no consensus on legacy in lands he once ruled. By ROBYN DIXON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
DUSHETI, Georgia -- Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili is a famous name across the former Soviet Union, the real name of one of the great tyrants of the 20th century--Stalin. Now there is another Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. He is 6 years old. You find him capering in a sunny garden in a small town in Stalin's native land of Georgia, burying his nose in an overblown yellow rose, strewing golden petals about. He is the great-great-grandson of the Soviet dictator, and the first heir to bear Stalin's full name. That Josef carries the name with its great burden of history is a delight to his Communist grandfather, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, who reveres Stalin as a demigod. But another of the Soviet leader's grandsons shunned Stalin's name. He is Alexander Burdonsky, 59, born Alexander Stalin. In his teen years he realized the truth about Stalin and changed his name to be free of the taint of cruelty and tyranny. With their conflicting views of history, of Stalin and of family, the grandsons Dzhugashvili and Burdonsky abhor each other. Their attitudes reflect a wider split in the former Soviet societies, most of which have still not come to terms with their bloody histories under communism. Nearly 50 years after Stalin's death in 1953, there is no consensus about his legacy in Georgia, Russia and elsewhere. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, only the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia made concerted efforts to untangle decades of Communist lies and set old ghosts to rest. Their commissions are still at work on research, historical reports and public awareness, but have struggled with a lack of cooperation from Russia, where many of the archives remain. Elsewhere, many other countries emerging from repressive rule have adopted formal processes to expose past crimes. South Africa and Latin American countries including Argentina and Chile instituted truth commissions. Some East European countries banned those too closely associated with the former regime from public office. The rationale for such efforts is that those who ignore the past or allow its message to be muddled are in danger of repeating it. But Russians simply turned their backs on the past without systematically examining it. There are many Communists who still laud Stalin, and some carry his picture at their rallies. Survey Shows Division of Opinion Polls indicate that the nation still is confused about his role. A third of those surveyed believe that he did more good than harm, a quarter believe the opposite and another quarter believe he did equal amounts of harm and good, according to a September poll of 1,500 Russians. Stalin's successor, Nikita S. Khrushchev, denounced him in 1956 for his brutality and abuse of power, exposing the mass arrests, deportations and executions of innocent people. In the glasnost era launched by Mikhail S. Gorbachev and after the fall of the Soviet Union, more information became available. Many Russians came to see Stalin as an evil, but powerful, leader. Today he still is given credit, particularly by the elderly, for winning World War II and industrializing the country. In Gori, Georgia, Stalin's birthplace, the atmosphere of denial is almost surreal. The Stalin museum, full of retouched Soviet photographs, makes no mention of his millions of victims. The museum's ardently pro-Stalin view of history appears to have changed little, despite the overall revisions of Soviet history about Stalin. "Historians have always lied. They lied before Stalin, they lied under him, and they're lying now," said Burdonsky, a Moscow theater director. "It's very difficult to find the truth." The truth is so elusive that even the number of those who died because of Stalin's policies is the subject of debate. According to the Memorial human rights group, Stalin's policies were responsible for the deaths of 9 million to 12 million people, including those who perished in the famines of 1932-33 and 1946-47. It says 25 million passed through the Gulag, Stalin's network of prison camps, or were exiled. Author and historian Robert Conquest estimates that 20 million died. Others have suggested higher figures. The uncertainty is exploited by Stalin's devotees. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili asserts that the accusations of mass killings in the purges of 1937 and other criticisms of Stalin were concocted on Khrushchev's orders. He has just written his own version of Soviet history aimed at rehabilitating Stalin. Sergei Sigachev, executive director of Memorial, said ex-Communist officials who came to power in most former Soviet states had no interest in exposing past crimes and identifying the guilty. It would have taken huge public pressure to force the process. "People were not up to it. The shelves were empty. People had lost all their savings. They weren't concerned about restoring historical justice," he said. "I can understand why people are saying, 'Why do we have to remember all these executions and firing squads? It happened, but let's forget it.' But if we forget how bad it was, then it will be very easy to go back and repeat all these things," he said. If it's difficult for society as a whole to come to terms with the past, it seems even more difficult for Stalin's family. Stalin barely knew his own children, let alone his grandchildren. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, 65, is the son of Stalin's son Yakov, from the dictator's first marriage. Yakov, a Soviet army officer, died in a German POW camp in World War II after Stalin refused an offer to exchange him for a German officer. Yevgeny never met his grandfather. "I was never able to call him grandpa," Dzhugashvili said sentimentally. "Stalin to me was a leader, an incredible person. He managed to gather the whole empire and form it into a fist. People like him are born once in a thousand years." Defense Seen as Foolish, Vain Burdonsky, son of Stalin's son Vasily, from a second marriage, saw him only at a distance, reviewing military parades from atop the Lenin mausoleum on Red Square. He sees Dzhugashvili's defense of Stalin as foolish and vain. "Stalin was a tyrant, a very cruel person, infinitely harsh and strict like the old czars of Russia. No matter how much you try to attach angels' wings to him, they don't stick," Burdonsky said. "All Yevgeny wants is to be part of the Stalin story," Burdonsky said. "He should start thinking about the life he's led. He's sitting on this old hack that the Soviet authorities used to ride, and he hasn't even noticed that the horse is long dead." Like Dzhugashvili, Burdonsky began life with the conviction that Stalin was a god. When he went to Stalin's funeral, he saw thousands of weeping people. But he could summon no tears for a man he did not know. Amid the heaving mass of sorrow, he was ashamed that he could not cry. Later, when he realized Stalin was a tyrant and repudiated the name, he felt liberated. For Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, who spent most of his working life in Russia, the family name made him feel insecure. A prim man, he wears a crisp white shirt, carries an old plastic comb in his pocket, smokes Camel cigarettes and rarely smiles--except at little Josef. He complains that his military career was blighted by the revisions of history and criticisms of Stalin. Friends drifted away. Working at defense manufacturing plants, Dzhugashvili says, he was terrified of scandals that could be used to dismiss or demote him. "My name was a disadvantage because the government has been on a ferocious crusade against Stalin. None of the military bosses had the guts to promote Stalin's grandson," he complained. Despite his experience, Dzhugashvili planned far in advance for his grandson to carry Stalin's exact name, and says he does not believe it will be a problem for him. Since middle names are traditionally taken from a father's first name, Dzhugashvili named his oldest son Vissarion. When his grandson was born, and named Josef, that gave him the exact name as his famous ancestor. Family Name Haunts Younger Son But Dzhugashvili's younger son, Yakov, 29, said no day goes by when the family name does not haunt him. An artist who also runs an Internet operation in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, he said some people swear at him when they hear his name, while others try to kiss him. "People usually ask very stupid questions like what do I think of him [Stalin]. When I was young, I tried to answer. When I got older, I realized there's no answer to this question," Yakov said. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili has set up a new Stalinist Communist party in Georgia--even though he's a Russian citizen. Occasionally, with TV cameras or journalists in tow, he travels to Gori. Gori is littered with Stalin statues. The oddest is comically small, not much more than a yard high, set in a broken-down amusement park for children. Teaching Soviet history at Gori University, Vazha Kiknadze collides constantly with the town's reverence for Stalin. He confronts students by reeling off the names of famous Georgian writers and artistic figures killed under Stalin. His students are quick to anger when they hear the truth. "There is no anti-Stalin propaganda," he said despairingly. "In fact there is pro-Stalin propaganda. There's a very strong revival going on." People in Gori often express eagerness to learn more about Stalin, but usually only good things. A sweet-faced 13-year-old, Nato Makashvili, says her history teachers told her that Stalin was good. She was taught that he repressed or killed 20 million people, and also that he was a great leader. Quizzed how a man who killed so many could be good, she replied simply that her teachers told her so, and then lapsed into a puzzled silence. Mariko Babilua, 24, heard little about the Gulag, except that all the drug addicts were sent away. "Whatever we were taught I believe, and I believe he was good," she said. 'People Have to Know the Truth' But Leyla Elikauri, 35, has an 8-year-old son, Shotik, and is determined that he know about Stalin's victims. "For me, Stalin was like Mussolini or Hitler," she said. "People have to know the truth about history. I don't want the things that happened in the past ever to happen again." Memorial's Sigachev is concerned that the Russian authorities, including President Vladimir V. Putin, a former KGB spy, are still eager to suppress the negative side of history. He contends that one reason Putin and his associates rose to the top in Russia was that the country never confronted the ugly truths about its past. "There was never any rethinking of history because there has never been any reevaluation of the relations between the individual and the state. The state has always remained paramount," he said. "Up until now, the government and the people have not reached the conclusion that the most important thing in a country is a human being." ******* ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht
