Doubtful About Democracy

At the start of a November lesson, the class read a letter accusing Stalin of destroying the army leadership on the eve of war with Nazi Germany. The teacher had chosen it with Tanya in mind, she said later, because the letter came from "a true believer" in Soviet power.

But Tanya refused to go along. "Under Stalin, the army was not in a poor state, it was strong," she said.

She was unhappy with all this emphasis on repressions rather than Stalin's achievements in modernizing a backward country. The textbook, she was sure, was not giving "a full reflection of Stalin's policy," and neither was the teacher.

Dima, the teacher's son, took Tanya on. "Stalin destroyed practically all the command staff," he said. "The army was decapitated."

Tanya would not bend. "The army was in a great state," she insisted.

"Come on," Irina Viktorovna said. "The army in a great state surrendered half the territory of the Soviet Union."

Tanya might say Russia didn't need freedom, but she had every opportunity for free speech in Irina Viktorovna's classroom. On the question of Stalin's purges, many disagreed with her.

"Stalin's policy was against people," Anton said. "He destroyed a huge number of people, all the smart people, all the people who could have achieved something. Basically, he destroyed the human resources of the country."

But Anton and others in class harbored a nagging sense that maybe Tanya was right. "Despite the fact that all of this was destructive for our country," he said, "a solid foundation was created at that time, even though it was a bloody foundation."

Anton asked what the teacher thought. This almost always happened, and Irina Viktorovna almost always avoided answering, convinced that "if I said my opinion, they would all agree with me."

But this lesson on Stalin was different. She was sure they did not hear unvarnished appraisals of the Soviet dictator at home. Even their own family's stories were kept secret, which is why Anton said his great-grandmother had been "in the repressions, but I'm not sure."

"We should learn all the facts of our history," Irina Viktorovna told them. "We should learn our history with Stalin and Lenin and Ivan the Terrible and so on, and know who we are and what our history is. If we keep silent about facts from our history, it will never bring good results. Why? Because if we don't talk about our mistakes, we will make them again."

Pride in Stalin

By January, Tanya seemed to have softened. The topic was the Cold War and which country, the Soviet Union or the United States, was to blame. Tanya said it was the Soviets' fault. "The policy of the Soviet Union was aggressive," she said.

Why? Irina Viktorovna asked.

"Because this was a totalitarian country," Tanya responded.

Irina Viktorovna thought she had finally gotten through. "Tanya, you have changed your opinion!" said the teacher. "You are blaming Stalin for aggression."

Momentarily confused, Tanya quickly regained her bearings. "No," she said. "I am not blaming Stalin. I am proud of him, because I think it is hard to oppose the entire society, the entire world."