Rehabilitating Stalin — Paul Robinson

Paul Robinson shows how the attempt to create a "Putin is rehabilitating Stalin" meme is based on reaching and is clearly an exercise in propaganda.

Robinson makes the point that celebrating Stalin as the victor in WWII and revering his leadership as Russia's savior from a dire future under the Reich does not imply condoning his other excesses.

I would add that the US founding fathers are also celebrated and revered even though some of them, George Washington, for example, were slave-owners, and some of them, Thomas Jefferson for instance, were slave-traders and slave-breeders.

This may be criticized as "whataboutism" as a logical fallacy. But whataboutism isn't necessarily a logical failure. Comparison and contrast are legitimate logical and rhetorical tools. Whataboutism becomes an issue when used to distract and deflect in an attempt to avoid defending a difficult position directly. Is it hypocritical to recognize a person's contributions in spite of that person's faults? Often great achievement are accompanied with serious failings.

But what about proportion? Stalin allegedly killed or imprisoned millions. None of US founding fathers were involved with more than a few dozen slaves. Doesn't this pale by comparison? On that level, yes. But they authored or signed documents establishing slavery as the law of the land in perpetuity. This led to the Civil War, and an aftermath that the country is still grinding through.

When I was eighteen years old, as part of a tour of the nation's capital I visited Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation. Part of the tour was going through the palatial home of the first American president and another was a visit to the slave "quarters," but "hovels" would be more apt term. Of course, I vaguely know about this from American history class in high school, but actually seeing the reality woke me up and I never forgot the scene. It was similar to an experience I had as a naval officer in the Pacific at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. I was "woke" by the truth. I not only became a realist rather than an idealist, but I was also radicalized for life.

Irrussianality
Rehabilitating Stalin
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa