Testaments of Vissarionovich: how Dmitry Medvedev became a fan of Stalin

The fact that Dmitry Medvedev’s use of encouraging the captains of the Russian military-industrial complex by reading Stalin’s telegrams is not an “excess of the performer”, a deviation from the “general line”, was clear, in general, right away. It is impossible to blame the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia for what, but for self-will and isolation from the team. But after the words of the press secretary of the President, the last doubts disappeared: this is the “general line” itself.

“You need to turn to any experience,” said Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the open lesson taught by Medvedev to the directors of defense plants. “It was a very difficult time then, there was the Great Patriotic War, so, of course, this is an invaluable experience.”

Recall that the meeting of the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council with the defense industry took place on Thursday under his chairmanship of the meeting of the working group of the Military-Industrial Commission to control the production of popular types of weapons, military, special equipment and weapons.

“I can’t help but draw your attention to how such work was evaluated in a similar situation during the Great Patriotic War,” Medvedev addressed the audience listening to him. hulls for tanks at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. Now I ask and hope that you will fulfill your duty to the Motherland. In a few days, if you turn out to be violators of your duty to the Motherland, I will begin to smash you as criminals who neglect the honor and interests of their homeland. We cannot tolerate our troops suffering at the front from a lack of tanks, while you, in the far rear, cool off and do nothing. Joseph Stalin. September 17, 1941″.

The moral is this: “Here, colleagues, I want you to hear me, well, remember the words of the Generalissimo. As you understand, the results of such appeals were very impressive. And if they were not, then you yourself understand what happened.”

Let’s clarify that Medvedev somewhat “raised” Stalin in rank: he became a generalissimo after the war. And his first military rank, Marshal of the Soviet Union, received at the beginning of 1943. Consequently, at the time of the drafting of the text cited by the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, Comrade Stalin was simply Comrade Stalin – although the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but a civilian.

But such a mistake, of course, is excusable in cases where one person wants to express his reverent respect to another, incomparably more significant. In such cases, adding stars to the shoulder straps – and even adding the shoulder straps themselves – is not a mistake, but part of the ritual.

Many commentators, of course, immediately remembered what an anti-Stalinist Dmitry Anatolyevich was relatively recently, emphasizing the contrast between his former and current statements. The contrast, to be sure, is enormous.

Here is what, for example, what Dmitry Medvedev said about the historical role of Stalin when he was president of Russia (2010, an interview with the Izvestia newspaper): “Our people won the Great Patriotic War, not Stalin … If we talk about state assessment, about how Stalin is assessed by the leadership of the country in recent years … then the assessment is obvious – Stalin committed a lot of crimes against his people. And despite the fact that he worked hard, despite the fact that under his leadership the country achieved success, what done to one’s own people cannot be forgiven…

In no case can we say that Stalinism is returning to our everyday life, that we are returning symbols, that we are going to use some kind of posters, or do something else. This is not and will not be. This is absolutely out of the question. And this, if you like, is the current state ideology and my assessment as a president.”

Stalin’s telegram is not a poster, but, of course, a symbol. If someone then, in the era of “modernization” and “reset”, heard how Dmitry Anatolyevich propagandizes the methods by which Iosif Vissarionovich achieved production discipline and production success, he would not believe his ears. I decided that some evil people had replaced Medvedev, replaced him with an outwardly very similar, but completely different double in his convictions.

But you and I, who know what a difficult, winding path both Medvedev’s political career and his political convictions have traveled over the past decade, we can have no doubt: Dmitry Anatolyevich is real. What can really be doubted is the effectiveness of the political and educational methodology chosen by him.

No, one cannot but agree that the results of Stalin’s appeals “were very impressive.” And what happened if there were no results is known really very well. There were arrests, torture, executions – both right and guilty. Moreover, there were incomparably more innocents. Actually, in this, in fear of the illogical, tired and pity machine of repression, was the secret of the effectiveness of Stalin’s management. By themselves, without black funnels, torture chambers, execution ditches, Kolyma camps, Stalin’s telegrams did not work.

And it should be especially noted that not only small bipods fell under the distribution. Heads flew from generals and marshals, ministers, party leaders… Even from members of the Politburo, which can be considered an analogue of the modern Russian Security Council. Is the current government ready to reproduce this model of strengthening discipline on a 1:1 scale? Something tells me: no, not yet ready.

And clue #1 is that Dmitri Medvedev read out the formidable Stalinist telegram. It seems that if the plans were more serious and close to implementation, then a person with a more, let’s say, brutal reputation would act as a history teacher. Still, not everyone managed to get used to the new role of Dmitry Anatolyevich, to the fact that we no longer have him as a liberal and a modernizer, but quite the contrary. Perhaps not even all the directors of defense factories.