Exhibition in Russia Seeks to Show Ivan Wasn’t So Terrible

Alexander Myasnikov says foreign enemies have unfairly tarred this Moscow leader as a murderous despot who bumped off his enemies and invaded his neighbor.

Ivan the Terrible needs better PR, Mr. Myasnikov says.

Amateur historian Alexander Myasnikov has received 
plenty of attention and support from the Kremlin for 
his take on Russian history. Photo: James Marson/WSJ

“It was an anti-Russian campaign. It’s a story of European PR about how there is a scary tyrant in Moscow,” says the amateur historian.

Other historians say Mr. Myasnikov’s take on the past is fanciful and politically slanted, but he has received plenty of attention and support from the Kremlin. An exhibition that Mr. Myasnikov, 60 years old, helped curate received funding from the government and a visit from the president. He was invited to give a lecture at the annual Kremlin seminar for regional officials where they hear the party line on all manner of subjects.

Long before seizing Crimea, President Vladimir Putin fueled patriotism, digging deep into Russia’s history to highlight heroic deeds and play down darker moments. Official guidelines for new history textbooks that Mr. Putin ordered drafted present Stalin’s repressions mostly as a side-effect of speedy economic modernization and list only positive aspects of Mr. Putin’s rule.

“We need to win minds,” Mr. Putin told historians in November, a day after visiting Mr. Myasnikov’s exhibition. “When we convince the vast majority of our people that our position is correct, objective and fair, and show that this position benefits our society, country and people, we will gain millions of supporters.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.