“Stalin was a traitor”: the rehabilitation of the “leader of peoples” came across Kadyrov

Society, as we know, develops in a spiral. There is, however, an opinion that the Russian one is an exception: they say, our history, unlike others, goes exactly in circles. But recent statements by Ramzan Kadyrov decisively refute this hypothesis. “Today no one will say that the Chechens were traitors,” he said. – Stalin was a traitor. He evicted not only the Chechen people, but also other different peoples.”

Until recently, it was difficult to even imagine this, but the fact is a fact: the main anti-Stalinist in the country was the head of Chechnya, who was never distinguished, to put it mildly, by liberal inclinations.

In turn, the former stronghold of liberalism in power, ex-president and now deputy chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, is now intimidating the captains of the military-industrial complex, reading out Stalin’s telegrams taken from the archives to directors of military factories and recommending “remembering the words of the generalissimo.”

In a word, everything was mixed up in the Russian political house. A spiral is definitely a spiral. All that remains is to figure out where our serpentine is directed – back or forward, up or down.

The question, as they say, is debatable. But, perhaps, today we can safely state that the process of re-Stalinization of the country, the rehabilitation of the “leader of the peoples” has encountered certain natural barriers.

Let us clarify that Kadyrov’s loud statement, made at the celebrations on the occasion of the 205th anniversary of Grozny, was the development of the scandal surrounding the new history textbook, presented in August, before the start of the school year, by Vladimir Medinsky, one of the leading authors of the manual and, in fact, the leading, guiding inspiring the power of the project.

The result of these efforts was presented as the restoration of justice in relation to the slandered history of Russia, distorted by our enemies. First of all – to its Soviet period. But in the end it turned out like in Chekhov’s famous story: they over-salted it. In the North Caucasus, especially in Grozny, the new textbook caused a real storm of indignation.

Peresol was revealed in the section with a story about the deportation of peoples carried out during the Great Patriotic War. According to the new textbook, the decision was made by the Soviet leadership not out of nowhere, but “based on facts of cooperation with the occupiers of the Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, and Crimean Tatars.”

It is stipulated, however, that “not only bandits and accomplices of the enemy, but also many innocent people” were repressed.

Actually, Vladimir Medinsky admitted the mistake and promised to correct it immediately, to rewrite the paragraphs that outraged Kadyrov and the Caucasus. True, according to his version, this chapter was taken without changes from previous editions. But even if this is so, it turns out that before the scandal, the authors of the updated textbook completely agreed with this interpretation.

It is not yet clear, however, whether the recent peals of Kadyrov’s thunder are a bright, victorious point in the scandal, its finale, or the beginning of a new interesting chapter. In other words, it is said: “Stalin was a traitor” – for a catchphrase, in polemical fervor, or is this a new attitude that requires additional work on mistakes?

Just in case, we can advise the authors of a textbook that is historical in every sense to carry out more thorough editing of their brainchild. So that, as they say, you don’t get up twice and sprinkle ashes on your head twice.