In Siberia's hinterlands, some would vote for Stalin

Tamara Sazhina knew she was stirring up trouble when her "Committee to Study Stalinist Heritage" persuaded city chiefs in this western Siberian town to resurrect a bust of her hero, discovered buried underground.

Few symbols tap so deeply - or controversially - into Russian desires for a strong state and law and order, as that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

"Should we clone Stalin?" coos Ms. Sazhina, a devoted pensioner, who has a small statue of Lenin on her desk, and a Stalin calendar on her wall. Never mind that some 20 million died during Stalin's systematic repressions. For Sazhina, three decades of the dictator's rule brought victory in World War II and transformed a land of peasants into the Soviet superpower.

"We witnessed all of it - I saw it with my own eyes," Sazhina says. "Even in wartime, prices went down and salaries went up...."

As Russians go to the polls Sunday to elect 450 deputies to the lower house of parliament, or Duma, the theme of authoritarianism has resonance.

There is little doubt that victory is assured for the "United Russia" party, which has the support of President Vladimir Putin. On the eve of the vote, Mr. Putin's approval ratings are soaring above 70 percent, though he is widely seen to be increasing his own firm grip on Russia.

But for some of the people of Ishim, about 1,250 miles southeast of Moscow, Putin's policy of "managed democracy," which includes a tighter leash on the media, may not be firm enough.

The view on Russia from Moscow may be one of a surging economy and progress. But out in impoverished provinces like these, conditions can be dire enough to prompt worship of one of the bloodiest figures of the 20th century.

"Stalin led us from one victory to another," says Erdinya Dogdaev, a decorated World War II veteran who survived major battles at Stalingrad and Kursk and is Sazhina's husband. "Putin is leading us to the collapse of Russia."

Riding those sentiments is Victor Rein, the Ishim city administrator for the last 13 years, who is running for a Duma seat. He brokered a compromise that will incorporate the three-foot-high Stalin bust into part of a refurbished square to honor the war effort.

"If it were a proper monument, victims of the repression might have protested, but it's only a bust," says Mr. Rein, whose city office plies visitors with leaflets about his candidacy. "This small category of people really want this strong hand - they would take stones into their hands to restore Soviet power.

"Everyone knows we can't turn the clock back," adds Rein. "There should be a strong leader, and he can exist, but in a normal, democratic state. What we mean by a 'strong hand' is order in the country and laws."

But local Stalinists would prefer to look back. They want to officially mark the centenary of Stalin's alleged sojourn in this town by placing a plaque on the cell door of the town jail, where local lore has it that the future strongman was locked up by tsarist police on his way to exile in 1903.

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