As I told you, once you've factored out their psychological differences (Hitler's truculence vs Putin's phlegm), Putin and Hitler are pretty similar....
The Fuehrer's Birthdays:
Personality Cult in the Third Reich
ihffilm.com
The Empire strikes back: Putin cult reaches new levels
By Andrew Jack in Moscow
Published: October 12 2002 5:00 | Last Updated: October 12 2002 5:00
They came bearing tributes from all parts of the empire: a crystal crocodile from Moldova; a slow-growing Siberian pine tree from Tomsk; even promises of a reproduction Tsarist crown from the Urals, and of a mountain in Kyrgyzstan.
As officials in the Kremlin begin sifting some of the more extravagant presents offered to President Vladimir Putin in the past week, others are considering the underlying significance of the pomp surrounding the head of state's 50th birthday this week.
If the gifts were striking enough, just as eye-catching were the tributes and attention given to the event, from cards sent by schoolchildren to laudatory hymns from youth groups - all given extensive coverage in the Russian media.
To some observers, the celebrations signalled a return to a Soviet-era cult of personality; to others, an aspect of the absolutist eastern- style potentate approach to governance that continues to pervade much of Russian business, politics and society.
It must have seemed rather alien to foreign leaders such as Tony Blair, the British prime minister, who left Moscow yesterday at the end of a two-day trip just as the tributes were dying down. The child-bearing capacities of Mr Blair's wife have gathered plenty of media attention in the UK but few are aware of the date of their prime minister's birthday.
"It reminds me of similar events in the Soviet period, with the birthdays of Stalin, Krushchev and especially Brezhnev - people with Putin's own ideology," says Andrei Zorin, a cultural historian. "In his deeds, Putin is continuing [former President Boris] Yeltsin's policies of privatisation and support for oligarchs, but in his ideology he reflects what he was taught in the KGB."
He draws a distinction with the UK's elaborate ceremonies for the 100th anniversary of the Queen Mother. "She personifies the idea of the state. Russia is a republic, and Putin is a head of state in a country where life remains very difficult for the majority. To have a private celebration is fine but such a public celebration is almost immoral."
To some extent, the tributes to Mr Putin are an extension of a far broader Soviet and post-Soviet love of anniversaries, from the 70 years of the Socialist Revolution (celebrated not long before it all collapsed) to the 57th year of victory in the Great Patriotic War (still going strong as an annual national event).
Kommersant, a daily Russian business newspaper, publishes daily obsequious birthday congratulations to political and corporate leaders - the latter often aged only in their thirties - from acolytes and colleagues.
But the cult around Mr Putin, whose ratings remain very high, has reached new post-Soviet levels. Two pop groups sing his praise; a youth movement marches in his support; tomatoes, cafes and people have been named after him; and museums opened and plaques installed where he visits.
In offices across the country, an increasing variety of portraits and photographs of Mr Putin hang on the walls. And in the most recent example, a village in Ingushetia, where a former head of the FSB security service supported by the Kremlin was elected president earlier this year, named a street in his honour last week.
In contrast to Mr Yeltsin, Mr Putin himself stressed that it was work as usual on Monday, and that all the gifts would be handed to the state. He appeared a little awkward with the celebrations. Sergei Mironov, the fellow St Petersburger he hand-picked to head Russia's upper parliamentary chamber, claimed the best gift for the president would be "hard work".
Indeed, in a classic Soviet tradition at times of controversy, Mr Putin was out of the country on his birthday, attending a summit for the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moldova, and giving the impression that all the fuss was nothing to do with him.
But it seems that Russian officials and ordinary citizens still need little encouragement to take their own initiatives that they believe will please their leaders.
As Mr Zorin says: "Today's Russian public is still by majority a Soviet republic which felt rather uncomfortable with the economic disaster and ideological vacuum of Yeltsin's era. It will be a long time before this totalitarian way of life is destroyed."
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