Strange move on their part, especially since they've come under fire for doing some shady things regarding Stalin's legacy of late (harrassing Memorial, the organization dedicated to preserving the memory of those swept away in that time, and carefully promoting some of what Stalin did), but apparently certain passages of the book will be required reading for "upper level students in the country's schools."

Not exactly up on European terminology (though the story's an American source), but does that mean high school? Or College?

Either way, Russia continues to perplex.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=8524272

Well russia is just trying to transition into an Iran like state.

Where the is a democracy technically. It's just the voting doesn't effect the major issues of the country and only token issues.

It's all a matter of balancing what was done with justification for why it was done... however not ignoring the fact that it was done... and also showing that they're different from the USSR, yet the same in the ways people want.

Since a lot of eastern europeons perplexidly look back happily on such days.

Yes the Russias stance on the USSR is odd.

I think Putin himself put it 'Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.'

There was a certain sense of glory to it, it's understandable. They were oppressed, but they were part of something bigger, something strong. They commanded the respect of the world, if only through their power. This feeling was more prevalent in the past, too, especially during the economic collapse that followed the final end of Communism in the Soviet Union, but even in the rest of the former Warsaw Pact, there's going to be this sense of nostalgia in a few.