Stalin

Russia is a country with more than its fair share of idiosyncrasies, yet even by its standards tomorrow's presidential vote takes peculiarity to the extreme. Those Russians who choose to cast their ballots will be participating in an election that is not really an election, in order to choose a president who, most likely, will not really be a president.

At the beginning of this school year, school pupils in Russia will be getting a new history textbook in which the policies of Josif Stalin are portrayed in a positive light, and which offers an interesting interpretation of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War of 1939 - 1940.