"Why am I, nevertheless, an optimist?.

Because the fundamental difference between Stalin's time and the present is that the older generation, who lived consciously before the revolution, believed that Stalin was an eerie deviation and that his regime would not last long.

While the young considered it a norm and considered the Soviet power to be self-evident, non-alternative and therefore eternal.

And the Stalinist regime is only creping from year to year, because the older generation was leaving (and the authorities actively helped him in this), and the young became more and more orthodox and faithful to the "only true teaching".

And now on the contrary: judging by the age structure of those who voted for Putin, the old people are loyal to Putin, and the youth - no.

And this means that time is working against Putin. He overslept the youth and it is already fatal for him: young people, brought up by the Internet, have a stable immunity against his propaganda apparatus, based on meter channels, "summed up Koch.