- 4 days ago
Why are Russians bringing back Stalin? It’s not politics—it’s something far more dangerous.
👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
Stalin starved millions, ruled through fear, and built a cult—but in today’s Russia, his image is returning. In this video, I explore why—through monuments, media, and memory—the ghost of Stalin still haunts the country. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s a crisis of meaning. From cult psychology to postwar trauma, this is the real story behind Russia’s obsession with its most terrifying leader.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Russia's Obsession with Stalin Explained
00:58 Stalin Was a Cult Leader
03:39 The Perfect Conditions for a Cult
07:46 The Cult Needs Enemies
10:12 The Hidden Reasons Behind the Regime’s Brutality
11:24 Progress and Social Mobility
13:56 Myths of Stalinism
17:13 Memory of Stalin
21:19 The Return of Stalinism?
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War) https://am
👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
Stalin starved millions, ruled through fear, and built a cult—but in today’s Russia, his image is returning. In this video, I explore why—through monuments, media, and memory—the ghost of Stalin still haunts the country. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s a crisis of meaning. From cult psychology to postwar trauma, this is the real story behind Russia’s obsession with its most terrifying leader.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Russia's Obsession with Stalin Explained
00:58 Stalin Was a Cult Leader
03:39 The Perfect Conditions for a Cult
07:46 The Cult Needs Enemies
10:12 The Hidden Reasons Behind the Regime’s Brutality
11:24 Progress and Social Mobility
13:56 Myths of Stalinism
17:13 Memory of Stalin
21:19 The Return of Stalinism?
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War) https://am
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00What kind of nation resurrects a dictator who starved his people, imprisoned millions, and ruled through terror?
00:10In Russia, the answer is not just political, it's spiritual.
00:15Stalin is not returning, because in many ways, he never left.
00:20In 2023, Volgograd unveiled a brand new Stalin monument.
00:25In 2025, a Soviet-era relief of his face quietly reappeared in the Moscow metro station.
00:32And while these tributes grow, monuments to his victims are vanishing.
00:38State TV calls him strong, school textbooks soften his crimes, and polls show rising admiration.
00:47I'm Ilveria Barry, a writer born in the Soviet Union.
00:50Today, I'll explain this strange obsession, why it's growing now, and what it really means.
01:03Stalinism wasn't just a political project, it was a cult.
01:08Today, many Russians have forgotten what it was really built on.
01:12It wasn't just about building a better society.
01:15The Bolsheviks framed their movement as a global salvation mission, an almost religious calling to remake the world.
01:24That messianic streak runs deep in Russian culture.
01:28There's always been this idea that Russia has a special destiny and need to reshape the world in its own
01:35image.
01:35That's why everything we do must be the biggest, boldest, and most spectacular.
01:42A warm note to our spiritual cousins, the Americans.
01:47In the early 20th century, that ambition took form as the dream of a worldwide socialist revolution.
01:55With Moscow, of course, as its center.
01:58And they didn't invent it from scratch.
02:01They borrowed heavily from Christianity.
02:04You see the same black and white worldview.
02:07Good versus evil.
02:08The same sacred texts, prophets, and saviors.
02:13The same apocalyptic vision of a final reckoning.
02:17Then, they layered on a strict hierarchy.
02:21A supreme leader.
02:22Rituals.
02:23Insiders and outsiders.
02:26And built a closed system.
02:28A cult.
02:29One that had very hard to live.
02:32Stalin played the role of cult leader to perfection.
02:36Pick up any history of religious cults, you'll find the same elements.
02:41The only difference was scale.
02:43Because in Russia, even our suffering is massive.
02:48Even our self-destruction has grandeur.
02:51You can criticize cult followers all you want, but cults offer something people crave.
02:57Meaning.
02:58That's what Stalinism gave millions.
03:01Its message was simple.
03:02We are building a new world.
03:05Everyone understood what that meant.
03:08And what they had to do.
03:10Even if they lived in fear and poverty, they still believed their struggle had meaning.
03:15That it was not for nothing.
03:17Let me ask you.
03:19Do you have that kind of purpose?
03:22That deeper meaning?
03:24Most of us don't.
03:25But Stalin's true believers did.
03:28They thought they were the lucky ones.
03:30They believed they were living for something greater.
03:33Even if it meant giving up their freedom and lives.
03:37That's how cults work.
03:44The cult of Stalin did not come out of nowhere.
03:47By the late 1920s, the Soviet Union had become a system with no private property,
03:52no independent courts, and no protection from local authorities.
03:57Your right to live, let alone thrive, depended entirely on how the state saw you.
04:03And you had no way to push back.
04:06In that kind of world, Stalin became something more than a leader.
04:12He became the only figure people could appeal to.
04:15The godlike force who might save you or crush you in an instant.
04:21To really understand how that worked, imagine yourself in a Soviet city in the 1930s.
04:27You work for the state because there are no private businesses.
04:31You live in one room of a communal apartment.
04:34Buying or building your own place?
04:36Illegal.
04:37Food is rationed.
04:39And you spend hours each day waiting in line for the basics.
04:43You can't just move to the countryside either.
04:46You have no tools, no seeds, no livestock, no money.
04:49The only way to live even halfway decently is to lend a job that grants access to resources
04:56and learn how to stretch those scraps to feed your family.
05:00Maybe you are a surgeon, a warehouse manager, a cop, a local party official.
05:06Maybe you hand out vacation vouchers or work in a cafeteria and steal food.
05:12Or make custom shoes for the wives of powerful men.
05:17But even with a tiny advantage, you must never, ever appear disloyal.
05:22Because if you lose your job, you lose everything.
05:25Your income, your housing, and often your freedom or even your life.
05:31And your family becomes outcasts.
05:33If your children are labeled the son or the daughter of an enemy of the people,
05:39they'll never rise above street sweepers or dishwashers.
05:43So what do you do?
05:45You believe.
05:46You believe in stalling the way others might believe in a savior.
05:50Because psychologically, it's safer.
05:54And you never organize outside the state.
05:56Because a cult does not tolerate competition.
06:00The regime dismantled every grassroots group.
06:03Not just political parties, but veterans clubs, religious circles, even local choirs.
06:09By the 1930s, Soviet society was a sea of isolated individuals.
06:16The only survival strategy was to secure a spot within the cult, within the system.
06:22And it worked.
06:23It pulled in the smartest, most ambitious people.
06:26The thinkers, organizers, and leaders all ended up serving the system.
06:31Because it was the only game in town.
06:34Psychologists call this Stockholm Syndrome.
06:37When a hostage becomes so helpless, the only way to survive is to identify with their captor.
06:44You merge with the aggressor.
06:46You convince yourself it was your choice all along.
06:50And it doesn't happen consciously.
06:53One day, someone simply realizes how great the leader is.
06:58And feels like they've seen the light.
07:02At that point, faith in stalling becomes mystical.
07:05Because when your enemies are invisible, and danger can strike from anywhere, all you have left is luck.
07:14So you pray.
07:15You hope.
07:16The threat passes you by.
07:19That's why Soviet life became so ritualized in the 1930s and 1940s.
07:24People were elevated through ritual.
07:26Destroyed through ritual.
07:27Justice, law, even logic.
07:30None of it mattered.
07:32It was like living in communion with spirits.
07:35And those public loyalty oaths, those confessions of guilt, they weren't political.
07:41They were acts of spiritual defense.
07:44Like casting out demons.
07:51By the late 1920s, cracks were forming in the Soviet dream.
07:56It had been 10 years since the Bolshevik promised equality, justice, and a better world.
08:01None of it had materialized.
08:04Instead, Soviet citizens were drowning in shortages, paranoia, and silent despair.
08:10While the U.S. roared through the 1920s, and even struggling Germany looked like a beacon of prosperity, the USSR
08:18was breaking down.
08:20The industrial sector was crumbling.
08:22Machinery was falling apart.
08:24Domestic production was anemic.
08:27And Western sanctions made exports nearly impossible.
08:31On top of that, the country faced a disastrous shortage of skilled professionals.
08:37Many engineers had either fled during the civil war, or been purged by the new regime.
08:43The result was disasters, infrastructure failures, factory breakdowns, and widespread paralysis.
08:51But the Soviet leadership couldn't say, we failed.
08:54So the cult did what all cults do when the promises fall apart.
09:00It invented enemies.
09:02That's when the infamous show trials began.
09:05Dozens of saboteurs were dragged into court, forced to denounce each other and confess to imaginary crimes on camera.
09:14Crowds watched.
09:16Journalists took notes.
09:18The message was clear.
09:20Blame someone.
09:21Or be blamed.
09:23At the same time, the regime needed to cut costs.
09:26But in a state-run economy, costs meant people.
09:31Everyone was a liability.
09:33So the purges began.
09:35Firing someone meant one less mouth to feed.
09:38Evicting a family meant freeing up housing.
09:42It was brutal accounting, masked as ideology.
09:46I explore this in my novel, The Prince of the Soviets, linked in the description, but here's the heart of
09:52it.
09:53In that atmosphere, everyone started scanning the room.
09:57Who could turn on me?
09:59Who can I denounce?
10:01Who's sitting in the place I want?
10:04You didn't want to be targeted.
10:06You struck first.
10:07Just like the witch trials of medieval Europe better them than me.
10:17But where did this cruelty come from?
10:19Why did the Soviet regime turn so violently on its own people?
10:23Well, two reasons stand out.
10:26First, nearly all of Stalin's top officials had lived through the traumas of World War I and the Russian Civil
10:34War.
10:34For nine years, the country was soaked in blood.
10:38Mass death was normal.
10:40PTSD wasn't diagnosed.
10:42It was lived.
10:44Second, the epidemics.
10:46Between 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu swept through Russia.
10:52No antivirals.
10:54No antibiotics.
10:56No records.
10:57Just death.
10:58And then came typhus.
11:00It hit the nervous system, caused hallucinations, delirium, and long-term psychological damage.
11:06Millions endured it.
11:08Many never fully recovered.
11:10Imagine an entire country emerging from that.
11:14Shell-shocked.
11:16Fevered.
11:17Half-mad.
11:18Is it any wonder the nation began to feel like it had lost its mind?
11:23Not really.
11:29And yet, despite the terror, despite the trauma, Stalin's era gave Russia something it had never seen before.
11:35Real social mobility.
11:38Before the revolution, Russian society was frozen.
11:41The gap between rich and poor was not just economic.
11:44It was physical, cultural, even linguistic.
11:48Picture a Russian aristocrat at the beginning of the 20th century.
11:52Educated.
11:53Multilingual.
11:54Well-fed.
11:55Refined.
11:56Now, picture a peasant.
11:58Hungry.
11:58Illiterate.
11:59Speaking a dialect, the elite saw as an instant mark of inferiority.
12:04They didn't just live differently.
12:06They looked like different species.
12:09And there was no letter connecting them.
12:11Right after the Bolshevik revolution, power shifted to a new class of idealists and minor clerks.
12:18People who could at least read and write.
12:21But by the time Stalin rose to power, the political and demographic landscape had shifted.
12:28Massive waves of peasants moved into cities.
12:31They were sent to night schools and literacy programs.
12:35And in many cases, were promoted into positions of real authority.
12:40The government actively encouraged this.
12:43It wanted people from the people to run the state.
12:47And for many, that meant a sudden and astonishing rise.
12:51My grandmother's brother was born into a peasant family.
12:55His mother couldn't read.
12:57His father could barely string together a full sentence.
13:00And yet, their son became a KGB colonel.
13:04His wife never worked.
13:06Their children grew up with every privilege the Soviet system could offer.
13:10My mother remembers visiting them as a child.
13:13Stunned by the elegance, the wealth, the polished manners.
13:18In theory, the USSR rejected bourgeois values.
13:22In practice, even the KGB wanted to live like the bourgeoisie.
13:26Sometimes, this mobility came through talent and hard work.
13:31Other times, through cruelty and ambition.
13:34But the collective memory doesn't always remember how the sausage was made.
13:39What people remember is this.
13:42Stalin made the impossible possible.
13:45He gave sons and daughters of peasants a path to become somebody.
13:50And for a nation built on centuries of frozen hierarchies, that felt like a miracle.
14:07The Miracle
14:09That life under him was harsh, but fair.
14:13But in a system like Stalin's, corruption was not the exception.
14:18It was the design.
14:20There were no checks and balances.
14:22No independent courts.
14:23No free press.
14:24That meant no one to report abuse unless the party allowed it.
14:29Occasionally, newspapers would mock low-level bright takers with cartoons.
14:34But high-ranking officials?
14:37Untouchable.
14:38The illusion of no corruption came from silence.
14:42The Communist Party needed to look flawless.
14:45And since all government officials were party members,
14:49maintaining that illusion became an unspokeable rule.
14:52Today, when someone says,
14:54Too bad, we don't have Stalin anymore.
14:56They are usually not calling for mass repression.
15:00What they really mean is,
15:02At least things were orderly.
15:04At least people were afraid to steal.
15:07It's not a love for tyranny.
15:09It's frustration with today's corrupt bureaucrats,
15:12mixed with a poor grasp of history.
15:15Another enduring myth is that Stalin turned the USSR into a great power.
15:19That he inherited a backward nation of wooden plows and left it with nuclear bombs.
15:26But what does greatness mean?
15:29Yes, the USSR had atomic weapons.
15:32Yes, the world feared it.
15:34But can you really call it greatness when citizens lived in fear, deprivation, and silence?
15:42Stalin's obsession with global communism led to reckless industrialization and forced modernization,
15:48no matter the human cost.
15:50And the cost was staggering.
15:52He took a vast rural nation and shattered its agricultural base.
15:57By the 1960s, the Soviet Union, once the breadbasket of Europe, could not even fit itself.
16:04I remember exploring the abandoned villages in my childhood.
16:08Empty homes.
16:09Newspapers from the 1950s still scattered on the floors.
16:13The elders were dead.
16:15Their children had vanished.
16:16There was no baby boom in the USSR.
16:20No post-war prosperity.
16:22Just decline.
16:24If Stalin hadn't waged war on the countryside, Russia's population today might be several
16:30times larger.
16:32And with it, a stronger economy, a broader workforce, a different future.
16:37He never achieved his global revolution.
16:40So what did he achieve?
16:42He annihilated Russia's peasantry.
16:45Only in the 21st century, thanks to modern genetics, fertilizers, and machinery, did Russia regain
16:52the ability to feed itself.
16:54But that progress came not from collective farms or village life.
16:58It came from massive agro-industrial complexes, often stuffed by migrant workers from Central Asia.
17:05That's the legacy.
17:07Not greatness, but a shattered countryside rebuilt by strangers.
17:17The collective memory of Stalinism is deeply distorted.
17:21Back then, criticizing the regime wasn't just dangerous.
17:24It was unthinkable.
17:27Even small complaint about injustice could land you in serious trouble.
17:32So people adapted.
17:33They lived in two worlds, one they inhabited, and one they were supposed to believe in.
17:41If someone in your family was arrested or repressed, you simply didn't talk about it.
17:47My grandfather was sent to a labor camp after World War II.
17:51He spent years there, but in our family, no one ever mentioned it.
17:56I did not learn about it until 10 years after he died.
18:00Stories like this were everywhere, but buried.
18:03People numbed their trauma, drawn it in vodka, passed it on silently, without even telling their
18:09children or grandchildren.
18:10They were afraid.
18:12They had learned, the less you see, the safer you are.
18:16And then there's another group.
18:18Those whose ancestors weren't victims, but perpetrators.
18:23The informers, the interrogators, the prison guards, the executioners.
18:28I've only ever read one personal account where someone admitted that his grandfather was
18:33one of those men and dared to speak publicly about it.
18:37Most people either don't know or pretend not to.
18:42So it begins to feel like all of this wasn't done by real people, but by aliens.
18:48By someone else's ancestors, not ours.
18:52That's where the doubt starts to creep in.
18:56Was Stalinism really that bad?
18:58Maybe the historians are exaggerating?
19:01Maybe the repressed deserted?
19:04Maybe it was not as widespread as they say?
19:07Not long ago, I spoke with a film director who passionately believed this.
19:11To him, the horror stories of Stalinism were just Western propaganda.
19:17He could visit the memorial website where millions of victims are listed by name, archival records,
19:24family testimonies, primary sources.
19:27But he won't.
19:29Because if he does, he'd have to live in a world where the USSR ate its own children.
19:35And that's too painful to accept.
19:37This is a textbook case of psychological substitution.
19:41When the truth is unbearable, we bury it.
19:44Or we replace it with comforting myths.
19:48And in a strange way, it's understandable.
19:51He can't keep peeking at a wound with a rusty nail.
19:55Eventually, the wound needs to close.
19:57But when history isn't reckoned with, when Stalinism is never fully exposed or condemned,
20:05the silent message becomes, this was acceptable.
20:09And it still is.
20:11Historians may know what happened.
20:14But most people don't.
20:15And when the facts are scarce, hard to face, or emotionally overwhelming,
20:21people turn to something else.
20:23Aesthetics.
20:24The image.
20:25And the Soviet image is powerful.
20:28It's cinematic.
20:30It's monumental.
20:31In popular culture, the USSR doesn't look cruel or suffocating.
20:35It looks iconic.
20:36That's what people miss.
20:38Not the terror.
20:40The style.
20:41And that includes the elite.
20:43They are their ones bankrolling the books, the movies, the museums.
20:48However, unlike the Bolsheviks, today's Russian elite lack a guiding ideology or mission.
20:54Their god is money.
20:55Their masculine energy is spent on corruption and turf wars.
21:00And yet, they still crave the feeling of power and purpose.
21:04Of belonging to something larger than themselves.
21:08That's how a strange kind of nostalgia has taken root in Russia.
21:13Not for what was, but for what never truly existed.
21:18A fantasy.
21:24So, is Stalinism making a comeback?
21:27Not exactly.
21:29What we are seeing isn't a revival of ideology.
21:32It's a scavenger hunt for political energy.
21:36Today's Russian leadership doesn't have a vision for the future, so they are borrowing symbols from the past.
21:42Stalin's image is not returning because people believe in him.
21:46It's returning because there's nothing else to believe in.
21:49You can see it in the cultural sphere.
21:52The films, the books, the memorials.
21:55The people funding them want to feel connected to a greater legacy.
22:00They think Stalinist imagery will please Putin.
22:04They see it as a loyalty signal.
22:07Meanwhile, the artists and writers are just doing their jobs, cashing their paychecks.
22:12Most of the public is not even paying attention.
22:15The pattern is familiar.
22:17It's the same reflex we saw during the war in Ukraine.
22:21A refusal to see.
22:23A culture of looking away.
22:25That habit was forged under Stalin.
22:28People learned to look away when their neighbors were arrested.
22:32When lies were broadcast on the radio and later on TV.
22:36When injustice marched past their door.
22:39If you didn't see it.
22:41If it didn't touch you, you could keep living your life.
22:45There won't be a real return of Stalinism.
22:47There's nothing to build a cult around.
22:50No unifying idea.
22:52No wave of idealistic youth ready to die for a dream.
22:55There's just an aging society clinging to a past that at least looked like it had meaning.
23:02And what about the future?
23:04Well, maybe someone has imagined it.
23:08There's a short dystopian novel called The Russian Gladiator by Slava Pilotov.
23:13It asks the question no one else dares to.
23:16Where does this all lead?
23:19What happens when the past becomes the only thing you have?
23:23You'll find the link in the description.
23:25If this story moves you.
23:27If it challenged you.
23:29Please subscribe.
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23:39Independent and unfiltered.
23:41And if you want to go deeper into Russia's soul through fiction, check out my new channel
23:47Elvira Barry Forbidden Books.
23:49You'll find the link in the description.
23:52Thanks for watching.
23:53And I'll see you in the next video.
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