“From a legal standpoint, the ussr still exists.” On Thursday, the bbc said that quote from a Kremlin adviser is only one of several factors pointing to a Soviet revival in Russia. This adviser backed his claim by saying there were procedural errors when the union collapsed. A former Russian prime minister later supported this adviser’s argument.

After Joseph Stalin’s death, he was officially condemned in Russia. All statues of the dictator—who may have killed over a million of his own people—were removed. In 1961, the city of Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd to further distance itself from his infamous legacy.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin at one point condemned Stalin and visited mass graves of those he had executed. He openly called Stalin’s rule a “tragic period” in Russian history.

However, nearly 60 years after the “de-Stalinization” movement, all this is changing. It seems even Putin has changed his tune.

• Russia has recently imprisoned those exposing Stalin’s brutal history and shut down institutions and museums dedicated to his executions.
• Putin said in 2017 that “excessive demonization of Stalin has been one of the ways to attack the Soviet Union and Russia.”
• When some protested against a new Stalin monument, authorities imprisoned one of the dissenters.

Since Putin took office in 1999, 108 Stalin monuments have appeared throughout Russia. These have been appearing more and more since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

This month, Russia not only rebuilt a Stalin statue in Moscow’s metro, it also unveiled one in Melitopol, Ukraine.

“[I’m] very happy that our leader got restored,” said Liliya Medvedeva, a Russian quoted by the New York Times. “We won [World War II] thanks to him. Yes, there were many mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes.”

According to the bbc, Russian officials no longer portray Stalin as a ruthless murderer and dictator but as a victorious commander and strongman.

In addition to these new statues, on April 29, Putin changed the name of Volgograd Airport to Stalingrad International Airport. He has even floated the idea of reverting the city name back to Stalingrad.

Many in Russia support this movement. One young Russian interviewed by the bbc said, “I think that Joseph Stalin is unfairly hated.” He also claimed Stalin could not be solely blamed for those who died during his reign. Stalin’s admirers believe local officials were largely to blame for Stalin-era executions.

Another Russian said, “[Stalin] was, of course, a tyrant. Still, he proved his mettle as a leader.” Another Russian, when asked about the many people Stalin killed, replied, “Well, it happens. Nobody’s perfect. Probably back then he had to do that, so that decision was taken. It was his choice. We comply.”

Some even agree with the aforementioned Kremlin adviser’s argument. One ultranationalist interviewed by the bbc said, “The dissolution [of the ussr] was illegal. Therefore, it should be canceled.” Another called for the return of “the borders of 1945.”

It should be noted that it is hard to gauge Russia’s true public opinion seeing as public dissent can be brutally punished, but these factors are still significant. A 2021 poll found that:

• 49 percent of Russians—by far the highest score of the options listed—“would prefer the Soviet political system.”
• 62 percent would prefer a policy of “state planning and distribution.”

Russia’s past is being remolded by its authorities. Its “de-Stalinization” stage seems long gone.

[This] does feel like an attempt by the Russian authorities to reshape the past to try to justify the present.
—Steve Rosenberg, bbc reporter

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has boldly likened Putin to Stalin. The first of his comparisons came back in 2004, when Putin had been leader of Russia for only four years and very few onlookers viewed him as a tyrant in the making or a danger to the global order. Mr. Flurry has reissued this warning several times in the years since.

Now Putin is openly reviving Stalin’s history and working to get his people to honor this brutal mass murderer. In many ways, Putin is standing for the same values as Stalin.

Mr. Flurry’s assessment has been proved correct time and again, contrary to statements from high-ranking men like Steve Witkoff and United States President Donald Trump, who have portrayed Putin as a reasonable man who wants peace.

How could Mr. Flurry know this so early in Putin’s career? Because he based his warnings on the sure word of Bible prophecy.

The Bible warns specifically about an end-time leader of Russia, which Mr. Flurry has pointed to being fulfilled by Vladimir Putin. He warns that Russia will at least partly achieve Putin’s dream of resurrecting the Soviet Union.

To learn more, Read Mr. Flurry’s free booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’