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Stalin


  • Putin is Carrying on Stalin's War on Self-Determination

    by Uriel Abulof

    Before Woodrow Wilson, Lenin advanced the ideal of national self-determination as part of communist revolution. Stalin made the term a cynical tool of Russian imperialism, a move Putin's approach to Ukraine emulates. 



  • The Winter War Ghost Haunts Putin's War Today

    by David P. Barash

    Stalin's ill-conceived invasion of Finland gave Russia a small part of Finnish territory as a ransom for a face-saving end to stalemate and gave the world the term "Molotov Cocktail" – a sarcastic rebuke to the USSR's claims to be dropping food relief instead of bombs.



  • A Tale of Two Dictators: Putin's Relationship to Stalin's Legacy

    by Simon Sebag Montefiore

    Despite their ideological incompatibility, Putin's nationalism depends on the cult of fear and repressive apparatus of the Stalinist era, which was never comprehensively demolished after the fall of Communism. 


  • Trump’s Wall and the Aggrandizement of Despots

    by Walter G. Moss

    Egotistical rulers like Trump often have grandiose architectural plans. Hitler had his “Germania," Mao had his “10 Great Buildings," and Stalin had his never-built Palace of Soviets. 



  • The Price of Self-Delusion

    by Ronald Radosh

    Paul Robeson, the towering figure of American arts, athletics, and civil rights activism, was also an unapologetic Stalinist. Failing to acknowledge this checkered legacy ultimately does a disservice to the goals he fought for.



  • Stalin’s Soaring Moscow Towers Sorely Need Body Work

    Most of the city’s so-called “Stalin high-rises” — both residential and government buildings — desperately need renovating. They are stuck in limbo, however, over who will foot the substantial bill.



  • Russia arrests second historian of Stalin’s Terror

    A second Karelian historian, Sergei Koltyrin has been arrested and is facing charges almost identical to those now brought against political prisoner, Yuri Dmitriev.



  • Who Killed More: Hitler, Stalin, or Mao?

    by Ian Johnson

    7 years ago historian Timothy Snyder asked the provocative question: Who killed more, Hitler or Stalin? Maybe he should have included Mao, too.