You could be a fluffy bunny. You could be a scary Zombie. You could even be Conchita Wurst.

But you just had to be Stalin, huh?

In a country as keen on Instagram as Russia, anything that helps you up your selfie game has a good chance of attracting attention. But the recently launched MSQRD app has a controversial marketing strategy: Among the filters you can add to your picture or video, there is one of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Since the beginning of the year, photos bearing the MSQRD watermark have been showing up more and more frequently on social media in Russia.

Apparently, for a significant number of Russians, it's fun to turn themselves into a dictator whose reign saw millions of people persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and killed.

And the company, which markets its free app as a way of showcasing facial recognition software, is clearly counting on Stalin to bring in the crowds: Of the 15 different filters currently offered, Stalin is the default setting.

Joseph Stalin has lately seen a revival in Russia. Early in 2014, a church-owned publishing house was met with outrage when it produced a Stalin-themed calendar. The Perm-36 museum, originally a museum to Soviet-era political prisoners, was transformed to exclude any mention of Stalin or repression.

More recently, a "Stalin Center" was opened in the Russian city of Penza. It aims to "popularize and implement the practices that were in use during Stalin times and are still relevant today."

Voicing opposition to this Stalin-friendly reimagining of history can make you a target of violence, as one Russian pesnioner learned when he removed a picture of Stalin from a public bus.

Another rare voice of dissent came from a church leader: As polls continue to show a growing inclination to view Stalin favorably, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk called for Russians to educate themselves by finding out about sites like the Butovo firing range near Moscow, where tens of thousands of people were executed for political reasons during Stalin's rule.

On the App Store, MSQRD is currently rated as appropriate for ages 9 and over, citing "Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence" and "Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes."