MOSCOW -- Wednesday was the anniversary of Joseph Stalin's death. The sordid man who for 30 years held the Soviet Union in an iron grip expired 50 years ago, but still casts a long shadow.
The two critical issues of spring 2003 are related to the diseased dictator -- Iraq indirectly and North Korea upfront. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rode to power on a wave of leftwing anticolonialism, instigated and nurtured by the Kremlin. Stalin didn't live long enough to see revolutions in the Arab world, but he tried to launch one in Iraq's neighbor, Iran, as early as in 1945 -- and thus provoked the Cold War.
The totalitarian regime of Hussein resembles Stalin's dictatorship so much and Hussein imitates Stalin so closely that Russians, with always a weak spot for outrageous rumor, are now saying that Hussein is Stalin's biological son. Although the supposition is ridiculous, it is interesting to note that the two do look very much alike: same paternalistic mustache, same low Neanderthal brow, same facial expression -- majestic, unsmiling, all-knowing, wise, and yet a bit stupid. Can one regime pass on its genes to another like father to son?