Stylistically, Putin May Be Like Stalin but His Historical Role is Far More like Lenin's, Dobrenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 18 – Observers routinely draw parallels between Vladimir Putin and Stalin, and stylistically, the two Moscow dictators are very similar, Yevgeny Dobrenko says; but in terms of historical roles, the current Kremlin ruler is almost an exact copy not of Stalin but of Lenin.

             The Russian scholar, now teaching at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice argues that “Putin, while stylistically very similar to Stalin, has a historical role that is precisely that of Lenin, a man who is leading his country to a real and fundamental catastrophe” (polit.ru/news/2023/08/14/dobrenko/).

            What Russia is going through now is “an absolute copy” of the events of the first decades of the 20^th century, Dobrenko says. First, there was a revolution sparked by the tsar himself, Nicholas II a century ago and Mikhail Gorbachev more recently. Then, the country had a second revolution, one which involved great hopes but failed.”

            That revolution was led in the first case by Aleksandr Kerensky and then Lenin. And finally, Dobrenko argues, “you have a revolution which really sweeps away the country which had existed. And in that case, “we have Putin in place of Lenin.” Consequently, however much Putin behaves like Stalin, his real historical role is that of Lenin instead.