• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Totalitarianism as a Spiritual State

22 December, 1998 - 00:00

By Lesia HANZHA, Tina TSKHOVREBASHVILI, and
Vyacheslav YAKUBENKO,

The Day

Two events took place in different parts of the former USSR last Friday,
outwardly unconnected. An exposition on totalitarian art opened at the
Art Museum in Kyiv, featuring masterpieces of socialist realism. The last
arrangements had been made for the unveiling of a monument to Stalin in
Zestafani, a town in the west of Georgia in the Caucasus. On that date,
according to the latest historical studies, the "father of all peoples"
would have been 120 years old. One thing connects these events. Instituted
under Stalin, socialist realism had carried out its mission in full: decades
of nationwide stupefaction and ideological canonization of numerous party
leaders, extending the "only correct teaching" to all corners of the globe.

Kyiv's exhibit is unique as almost all items on display have been stored
in the National Museum's repository for over a decade. The reason for their
creation and then oblivion was ideology. How could a new personality cult
be established without destroying the old one, with all its attributes,
substituting the portraits of the old political monster with those of the
new ones? (One is reminded of the fuss round the "jubilee gift" for President
Kuchma two years ago, with "independent" Ukrainian painters competing to
create a masterpiece, submitting a number of variations on the Hrushevsky-Kravchuk-Kuchma
theme).

So they tore down Lenin's statues and removed his portraits from office
walls, so what? Shelving works of totalitarian art is much easier than
changing the totalitarian mentality. Totalitarianism is not a social order
but a state of mind.

Another Stalin statue was unveiled in another western Georgian town,
Samtredia. "It is not just nostalgia. It is a demonstration of distrust
of all those currently in power who robbed their own people of heating,
electricity, and jobs," The Day's correspondent was told by Joseph
Stalin's 62-year-old grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, head of the Georgian
Society of Stalin's Ideological Inheritors.

Such nostalgic campaigns, betraying a steady guiding hand, are staged
not only in Georgia. Mr. Dzhugashvili is traveling to Minsk shortly. He
will play his grandfather in a two-part picture titled The Moment of
Truth to be released by a Belarusian company. The film is about World
War II. Also, he will meet with Aleksandr Lukashenka to agree on the opening
of a Stalinist society in that country. Weak power in a democracy inevitably
fosters growth in the number of those craving an "iron hand" and "iron
will." Only when we have an effective government based on popular recognition
and strict observance of all human rights and freedoms will people stop
looking back at totalitarianism with longing and totalitarian art will
be regarded as just another form of art, not politics.

COMMENTARY

Heorhy KRIUCHKOV, Chairman, Parliamentary Committee for National
Security and Defense, Communist Party of Ukraine:

A miserable starving country. Twenty years later it actually turned
into a superpower as tremendous changes had been carried out. There was
also a negative, tragic aspect to that development. It is easy for us to
discuss it now, but at that period the situation was entirely different.
There have been no other personalities as spectacular as Stalin.

Oleksandr LAVRYNOVYCH, Rukh:

Such pages in history should not be forgotten. We must always remember
that proclaiming universal well-being and happiness spells not just trouble
but a nationwide tragedy. Names such as Joseph Stalin should be entered
into a separate column as a reminder of where tyranny leads.

 

 

Rubric: