Russians pay tribute to Stalin

Russia’s Communist Party leader laid flowers at Josef Stalin’s grave outside the Kremlin today, leading several hundred mostly elderly Russians who gathered in Red Square to mark the 52nd anniversary of the Soviet dictator’s death, reports said.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was among several people who laid flowers at the grave topped by a bust of Stalin, Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

It said some 500 people came to the square to mark the anniversary, some holding portraits of the leader they strongly admire.

More than half a century after Stalin’s death, opinions about the leader who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people in his own country are divided, and many Russians themselves have ambivalent feelings about him.

In a recent nationwide poll, 50% of respondents said their view of the role Stalin played in Russian history was positive, while 37% said they viewed Stalin’s role as negative and 13% were undecided.

A total of 42 % said they wanted or wouldn’t object to having a leader like Stalin at Russia’s helm today.

The poll by the VTsIOM agency was based on answers from 1,600 respondents.

While his orders led to millions of deaths, Stalin helped turn the Soviet Union into an industrialized superpower, and despite what historians say were grave strategic errors, many Russians believe he was the driving force behind the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.