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Our research considers the relationship between historical memory and political evaluations of the past and present. We first examine how historical reflection on the Soviet Union under Stalin is influenced by memories of familial suffering during World War II and victimization under the widespread Soviet gulag prison system. Based on a 2019 representative survey of Ukraine, we show that respondents who recall family members being injured or killed fighting during World War II and those who recount families being imprisoned in Soviet gulags have increased positive and negative appraisals of the Soviet Union under Stalin respectively. However, we also find that favorable opinions of Stalin are strongly predicted by approval of Vladimir Putin, who has actively promoted rehabilitation of Stalin's legacy to bolster personalist rule at home and justify revisionist agendas abroad, including in Ukraine. Our results underscore interactions between the present and past in shaping historical memory such that what appears as enduring legacies of the past could also be a function of present political circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some German-built river motor-boats in the former USSR were more than simply means of transport or cruise ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitali Vitaliev admires George Orwell's vision in portraying everyday life in the USSR almost to the letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author looks at the human side of technology in a new regular column. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]