World News for Students of English

03-06-2025 15:00

A new statue of Josef Stalin has been placed in a Moscow Metro station, showing how Russia is changing the way it remembers its past.

After his death, Stalin’s statues were removed, and his crimes were condemned. But recently, Stalin has been shown again as a strong leader and wartime hero. Some young people even believe he is unfairly hated and support his role in Russian history.

Stalin is not the only thing coming back. An adviser to President Putin recently claimed that the Soviet Union still exists due to legal mistakes during its collapse. This idea is supported by other politicians and nationalists. They use it to argue that the war in Ukraine is not a foreign war but an internal Russian issue.

This is part of a wider movement in Russia. Leaders are changing how people see the past to support current actions, like the war and tensions with the West. They reinterpret history to build a new national story.

Difficult words: condemn (to say something is bad or wrong), nationalist (a person who strongly identifies with their nation and supports its interests), reinterpret (to understand something in a new or different way).

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