Putin’s War in Ukraine Accelerating Russia’s Turn to Stalinism, Pavlova Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 4 – Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and his response to “the unprecedented economic sanctions of the West” are accelerating Russia’s turn to Stalinism in a “modernized” form, according to US-based Russian historian Irina Pavlova (ivpavlova.blogspot.com/2022/04/blog-post_7.html#more).

            The Russian political regime is “preparing itself for emergency actions in the economy and new repressions in social life because it does not have any other way out,” she says. “This will be an exit from the existing crisis and the transition to a mobilized economy. Up to now it has remained in essence NEP-like in its approach.”

            Putin has been moving in this direction for some time, Pavlova continues, but with the war in Ukraine, “the moment of truth has arisen;” and in response, he is preparing to go even further. Indicative of that is the appearance of numerous articles and books outlining and recommending for the future Stalin’s recipes.

            Pavlova points to four of these:

·       Moscow historian Andrey Fursov posted on YouTube his thoughts on “An Alternative Project: Stalin Showed Russia and the World a Way Out of a Dead End” (youtube.com/watch?v=3SSTnBrGhMk).

·       Former minister for the development of the Far East Aleksandr Galushkin made a similar argument in another YouTube post entitled “Why the USSR was First in the World” (youtube.com/watch?v=2R5liPGRBMw).

·       Galushkin expanded his argument in a book, The Crystal of Growth: Toward the Russian Economic Miracle” which was released by the publishing house “Our Future” and widely praised (litres.ru/aleksandr-galushka/kristall-rosta-k-russkomu-ekonomicheskomu-chudu/chitat-onlayn/).

·       And commentator Mikhail Delyagin published an article suggesting that “Only a Stalinist Economy Can Save Russia” (business-gazeta.ru/article/527988).

Obviously, this is not the only intellectual trend in Russia today; but it is, as Pavlova suggests, an important one. Unfortunately, it is often given far less attention than are those which advocate things people in the West would like to see happen and who speak English and thus are better able to reach that audience.