More than half the respondents to a survey published Tuesday by an independent Russian polling agency said Soviet dictator Josef Stalin played a positive role in the life of the country.
Sixteen percent of the respondents in the poll carried out by the independent Levada-Center last November 21-24, said Stalin played an "undoubtedly positive" role, while 36 percent said his role was "rather positive."
Twenty-one percent of those polled said the Soviet dictator played a "rather negative" role, while nine percent said his role was "undoubtedly negative."
Nineteen percent of the respondents said they were at a loss to answer.
A 2013 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found support for Stalin in Russia had increased since the end of the Soviet Union and a correlation between, in its words, "Stalin’s rehabilitation in Russia and the presidency of Vladimir Putin."
The percentage of respondents saying Stalin played a positive role in the country's life was the highest in a Levada-Center survey since 2006, when it began asking respondents to assess the role of Russian and Soviet leaders.