Stalin gap divides Russia from its neighbors

In Moscow, adults are snapping up school notebooks for children.

Why? The cover has a heroic image of Stalin.

The Stalin notebook is part of a “Great Russians” series.

On one level, it is depressing that the art director of the Alt publishing house does not seem to know that “Stalin,” was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a Georgian.

But far more importantly, Russia’s amnesia towards its Stalinist past is dangerous.

Winston Churchill, no friend of his wartime ally, once noted that Stalin dragged Russia from the wooden plow to the H-bomb. Similarly, many Russians prefer to focus on this “positive” of Stalin’s three decades of rule.

As to the sinister side, Stalin’s close collaborators called him: “Genghis Khan with a telephone.”...