Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 21 – Residents of Ukraine not only have a low opinion of the current Russian leadership which has invaded their country; they have an increasingly negative one of Putin’s hero Stalin, with only five percent saying they view him positively, down from 23 percent in 2021, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
Sixty-four percent of Ukrainians now have a negative opinion about Stalin, an increase from before and one that will make it even less likely they would ever be willing to live under the control of a state that celebrates Stalin (thinktanks.by/publication/2022/08/21/ukraintsy-stali-huzhe-otnositsya-k-stalinu.html).
Given what Ukrainians have long known about Stalin’s role in the Holdomor, the terror famine he organized to destroy the peasantry in Ukraine and other republics, it is surprising that as recently as a year ago, almost one resident of Ukraine in four still had a positive view of the Soviet dictator.
It is likely that many of those who did were ethnic Russians living in the eastern part of Ukraine. But the new data can only be explained if a significant number of them changed their mind or perhaps weren’t counted because they are in areas currently controlled by Russian forces.
Such a conclusion is suggested by the fact that Ukrainian residents in the western and central parts of the country were the most negative about Stalin, while those in the south and east, areas where the percentages of ethnic Russians are higher, were less negative, the polling agency said.
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