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Why Putin is beholden to Stalin's legacy - New Statesman

newstatesman.com · 3,124 words · saved by 1 readers

The Russian president has embraced the Soviet cult of fear and control. His invasion of Ukraine is a colossal gamble to secure his place in history.

When guests used to visit Vladimir Putin in his office in the ­Kremlin’s Senate Palace, he’d point at the bookshelves and ask them to choose a book from Joseph ­Stalin’s library. Half of Stalin’s books – usually marked up by the Soviet leader himself with red or green crayons – remain in Putin’s office. As one of his ministers told me, Putin would ask the visitor to open the book and they would look together at whatever marginalia Stalin had written: sometimes it was a grim laugh: “xa-xa-xa!”; sometimes a snort of ­disdain: “green steam!”; at others it was just a word: “teacher” was written on

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