Maybe these types of pictures, inscriptions etc. could be labeled "History of Russia, Soviet era." Don't deny it, don't glorify it. Portray your history accurately. Every country has moments in history they are not proud of.

Russia is simply unbelievable! Just imagine the howls that would arise, first and foremost exactly from Russia itself, if a station (or anything else) were built in Germany that included an inscription of the opening lines of the old German national anthem: “Deutschland Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt.” Yet somehow the obscenity of recreating Stalinist rants in Russian railway station walls doesn’t register on the children of Stalin’s Russian victims. It most certainly registers on the children of Stalin’s foreign victims.

Stalin was a hero of Russia, contrary to what the propaganda wants you to believe. He took charge of the country devastated by the WWI and Civil wars and surrounded by hostile and aggressive enemies, won the WWII, oversaw rebuilding of the country after the WWII and left the USSR with nuclear bomb. An impressive achievement, indeed. One may argue that without Stalin there would be no Russia today. At the peak of Stalin's "repressions" there were 3.8 (yes, three point eight) million people in prison. Before the USSR break up, in the late 1980s, there were about THIRTY FIVE (35) million people in prisons. Draw your own conclusions.

I respond to Marzipan6. Deutchland Uber Alles is still the German National Anthem. It was written by Josef Haydn long before Hitler was born. It was not the anthem when the Nazis were in power. As far as the Stalin Metro thing goes, most of the U.S.'s founding fathers were slave owners. The also cleansed the colonies of those loyal to Britain, killing and terrorizing. America needs its own truth commision.

I'm sick of submitting to those who want to demonize Russia. Whatever Stalin did in Russia, the Russians know and its their business. As for me, as far as I'm concerned, he licked Hitler's boots. My own father told me so, and told me we were best freinds during that war. And as far as I'm concerned, about that Molotov Ribbontrop Pact, I'm glad Stalin had half of Poland when the Soviets were invaded! Better Stalin have half of it than Hitler have all of it because SOMEONE was going to have it! There is no way Poland was not going to be invaded and occupied, so the only question was by WHOM! As far as the Baltics, Stalin had to keep those ports open to Russia to get those supplies in from the USA to fight Hitler with...and if anyone things Hitler would have been nicer, dream on! In what I'm about to say, I'm not exactly comparing Stalin to the Confederacy. I just think my country is very hypocritical! My great grandfather volunteered out of Bowling Green, Kentucky to fight for the Union and against slavery in the US Civil War. I sacrificed a lot to fight fuedalistic Jim Crow and for Civil Rights in the 1960s. They STILL have all kinds of statues of Robert E. Lee, and Jeb Stuart and those generals who founded the KKK which lynched African Americans for 100 years, and they have all those parks named after them, etc. So having a picture of Stalin in a subway is not a big deal, not NEARLY as big a deal as that Confederate, slave owning, slave system expanding flag flying in front of state capital buildings and all over the place in the South of the USA.

Stalin didn't win World War II the Russian people and, in particular, the Russian military did, despite, not because of the Stalin's purging of over 2/3 of the generals before the war, ordering the Russian military not to take defensive maneuver in response to obvious German preparations for invasion or initally even to resist the invasion, and his constant interference with military strategy invariably to the determent of the Russian forces in the field. All Stalin did was take credit for the triumphs of other, and then proceeded after the war to make their lives hell for the unforgiveable crime of having been right.

At B Barth - You know that even though the melody of German anthem did not change - the lyrics used are completely different? They use the third line of the original lyrics only and it is one of the really few European anthems with no reference to war and killing.

B Barth, your post is a little confused. Whereas the melody and words long pre-date Hitler, the song has served as the German national anthem since 1922, including throughout the entire Nazi period. In its original form, the song had three verses, and the Nazis put particular emphasis on its first verse (“Germany above all in the world”) to support their propaganda of German racial superiority. The suffering and horror which was unleashed over Europe in pursuit of that dogma made those words an abomination. Consequently today's Germany uses only the third verse of that song as its national anthem, whose words tell of justice and freedom. Just as Nazi actions made the words of the first stanza of the original anthem an abomination, so Soviet actions made the words of its Soviet national anthem a horror and an abomination to the millions who suffered under it. Which is why post-Soviet Moscow was decent enough to commission entirely new words for its current national anthem, although still sung to the old tune. But their consideration for the suffering wrought under the original Stalinist words does not extend to declining to defile a railway station wall with them.

Pauline, I respect the historical suffering of Afro-American people in the US, and I share with you your indignation over the amazing arrogance that would lead one human being to presume he can actually own another. I realize, too, that because of the shoddy treatment meted out to people like Paul Robeson, for example, and because of their warm acceptance in Stalin’s USSR, such people would come to have positive views about Soviet Russia, and that those views would influence others, perhaps even you. But unfortunately, Stalin’s Russia also kept many, many slaves – millions of them. Its slavery was based not on race differences, but on class differences. And incidently, in today’s Russia African people have an extremely hard time even just because of racism of the common sort. There are many articles in the Russian media about this all the time. When people and their descendants who suffered under the Soviet system of slavery tell of those realities, they are no more demonizing Stalin than people who tell of American slavery are demonising America. Each is simply telling facts. Those facts may be hard for others to hear, but they are still facts. I respect the suffering of America’s one-time slaves, and I recognise that the damage that this caused them isn’t fully healed yet. Please also respect the suffering of the Soviet Union’s one-time slaves, and likewise recognise that the damage which they suffered is still raw, and a long way from being healed. And Pauline, you miss the point when you debate whether Hitler or Stalin was better. Each was a monstrous blotch on humanity, and both are to be condemned.

History is history. While I am not a fan of Stalin, what was accomplished (not HOW it was accomplished) is a phenomenon that can not be matched again for a long, long time. Sure, people died. Sure, he was a monstor. No, he was more than likely (in terms of numbers alone) a worse monster than Hitler (how can one measure, maybe 10 million by Hitler with maybe 30 million Russians and other ethnic people? Even one is bad enough for me!). Yet, the counterbalance has been set with Solzhnitsyn's "GULag Archpelago" also being tought in high school. I am sure that there aren't all that many who excuse any of deaths at the order of Stalin (as well as those great artitists and poets - among them Mayakovsky and Esenin-who committed suicide rather than to go through the torture of Stalins lackeys). Fortunately, the general sense of humanity is greater than a sense of evil and unmitigated hate and death. I, persoally, have greater faith in the Russian people not to see this metro station's architecture and frieze as an act that totally condenes the actions of Stalin overall. Hooray for the intelligence of the majority of Russians!

September 03, 2009, 13:10, Cascade wrote > Stalin was a hero of Russia, contrary to what the propaganda wants you to believe. > He took charge of the country devastated by the WWI and Civil wars and surrounded by hostile and aggressive enemies, won the WWII, oversaw rebuilding of the country after the WWII and left the USSR with nuclear bomb. An impressive achievement, indeed. One may argue that without Stalin there would be no Russia today. > At the peak of Stalin's "repressions" there were 3.8 (yes, three point eight) million people in prison. Before the USSR break up, in the late 1980s, there were about THIRTY FIVE (35) million people in prisons. Draw your own conclusions. TO CASCADE; Absolutly right dear friend ! Not only Russia but France and West of europe will be under german rules yet. Eternal glory to J. STALIN !People of Russia ought to be proud of our liberator! Thanks to all the soviet people ! Grateful frenchman! Charles