Almost half of Russians want a state-sanctioned monument to Joseph Stalin, according to an independent poll that shows the figure has nearly doubled in ten years.
The Levada Centre said that 48 per cent of respondents said they would be “positively disposed” to the idea of a statue to the Soviet despot to celebrate victory over the Nazis. Only 20 per cent firmly opposed the idea, and 29 per cent said they were “indifferent”. A decade ago 25 per cent backed a statue.
Approval of Stalin’s legacy has steadily grown in Russia during the time of President Putin, who has made celebration of winning the “Great Patriotic War” a pillar of his rule, though his government has neither sanctioned nor denounced Stalin. About 27 million
