Sir, While it may seem incomprehensible that a large number of free Russians will tomorrow honour the 50th anniversary of the death of Stalin (report and T2, March 3), it seems to me to be perfectly natural.

Stalin was trying to transform the Soviet Union into a modern industrialised country. He was obsessed, and with reason, by the idea that Hitler would attack the USSR and enslave its people. To slacken the pace of industrialisation, therefore, would be a betrayal of the Soviet Union and communism. In Stalin’s eyes those who advocated such a programme, as happened at the 17th Communist Party Congress of 1934, were traitors.

Russians in the Thirties were scared and were not free, but they could work, eat and have old-age provision. This afforded them a type of living which is denied to many poor in Russia today, enslaved at the wrong end of the economic scale. They are not “free”. It is these, I believe, who would welcome the return of a strong, even brutal, leader who might redress the balance in their favour.

Yours faithfully,
ALEX McGRATH
(Head of History),
Cheltenham College,
Bath Road, Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire GL53 7LD.
March 4.

From Mrs I. M. Z. McDonald

Sir, I will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stalin’s death on Wednesday. Millions would have lived if he had died a hundred years ago.

Yours faithfully,
IEVA McDONALD,
2 Willingdon Park Drive,
Eastbourne, East Sussex BN22 0BP.
ieva.zarins@btopenworld.com
March 3.

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