Stalin, Putin, and Russian Literature

Stalin (born Ioseb Jughashvili)

Koba, as young Stalin was known, came from Caucasian Georgia on the southwestern periphery of the Russian empire. He picked up Russian only when he was subjected to russification as a pre-seminary student. Historically speaking, he was not much different from an Indian kid anglicized by the British imperialists.

History is full of ironies.

Just as the British imperialists had provoked rebellion among anglicized Indians, the Russian imperialists had whipped up russified Georgians' hatred toward the Tzarist regime. Imperialism bred nationalism.

A Georgian at heart though, Stalin (meaning Man of Steel) always had a soft spot for great Russian writers. Notably he was a lifelong admirer of Alexander S. Pushkin. Why not? Young Stalin was an aspiring poet, penning beautiful Georgian lyrics rendered in his beautiful Georgian voice.

Himself well-read, Stalin had never banned Russian classics even at the height of the Great Purge. Indeed his countless victims, while awaiting firing squads, could still feel free to bury themselves in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Chekov, you name it.

Putin

The former KGB officer is a fluent German speaker despite his strong Russian accent. He has also learned English as a university student. Above all, he is from St. Petersburg, the window to the West for Peter the Great who was a territorial expansionist as much as a humble student of Western culture and technology.

Vladimir V. Putin is never tired of projecting himself as a Peter the Great of the 21st century. His cockiness knows no bounds. He used to act like a spoiled brat on the world stage, thanks to Russophiles such as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

That was then. This is now. Finding himself in the Ukraine quagmire, the little tzar feels the need to stand on the shoulders of a literary giant whom every Russian loves and respects. That's why Pushkin is so heavily painted as a poster child for "Russian superiority."

Putin must have chosen to forget the following famous line from Pushkin:

"I was not born to amuse the Tzars."

Author: renqiulan