It would not have entered the head of any woman in the Soviet Union to think that she should bear Stalin’s child, he says. “Women loved their men, but they believed Stalin. And this was not completely a cult of personality. The phrase ‘Stalin is married to Russia’ was in principle impossible.” Its use would have led to criminal charges. Putin's cult has expanded far beyond Stalin's, “in part because of the tastelessness and vanity.” But “that is secondary,” Kantor says. The main cause is that what we are observing is “the development of a pagan cult in a nation which has lost all other convictions. There is no longer faith in freedom or equality or democracy or communism.”In essence, Kantor continues, “Stalin really considered himself to be a communist; he really believed that he was building an unheard of society of equality.” Consequently, he was viewed and insisted on being viewed as “a builder of communism and not as a man or as the most attractive individual of the tribe.”
“What remains is a tribal faith – and the cult of a leader (precisely a tribal and pagan cult) has replaced all ideology.”
