http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\12\22\story_22-12-2009_pg4_7
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Russia still divided on Stalin, 130 years after his birth
* In a poll by the Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion, 54
percent of Russians gave a positive assessment of Stalin's leadership
qualities, while eight percent gave a negative one
Russian Communists on Monday paid tribute to Joseph Stalin 130 years
after his birth, with debate still raging in the country over the reputation of
a leader seen in the West as an evil tyrant. While historians blame Stalin for
the deaths of millions in purges, prison camps and forced collectivisation,
many in Russia still praise him for leading the Soviet Union to victory over
Nazi Germany in World War II. Leaders of Russia's post-Soviet Communist Party,
one of the remaining champions of his legacy, marked his birthday by laying
wreaths on Stalin's grave at the Kremlin wall. "Our Soviet state and Stalin
saved the world from a plague," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told
the Interfax news agency as he laid his wreath. "I assure you that memory of
him will live on for ever."
In a poll by the Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion published
last week, 54 percent of Russians gave a positive assessment of Stalin's
leadership qualities, while eight percent gave a low assessment. Last year, the
Georgian-born strongman even came third in a television poll for the greatest
Russian ever.Rights groups such as the award-winning Memorial have campaigned
since the fall of the Soviet Union for the crimes of the Stalin era to be
properly recognised in Russia through monuments and education. In a rare
official condemnation, President Dmitry Medvedev in October condemned the mass
killings under Stalin saying "the memory of national tragedies is as sacred as
those of victories". But such comments are unusual and on Monday's anniversary
most of the voices condemning Stalin were those of rights activists rather than
top government or Kremlin officials. "He was a villain. And a tyrant. A
cunning, wily person, capable of weaving intrigue.
These were his only virtues. If they can be called virtues," leading
human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta. Russia's
human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin, meanwhile, bluntly described Stalin
as "one of the most negative personalities in our history". "This was a son of
a bitch who sold out everything and anything that he could for the sake of
himself and for the sake of his power," he told Interfax. Yet there was
consternation earlier this year in Russia when the parliamentary assembly of
the OSCE adopted a resolution likening Stalinism to Nazism. Sergei Mitrokhin,
head of the liberal Yabloko Party which is no longer represented in the Russian
parliament, meanwhile said that promoting Stalinism should be formally banned
in Russia.
There has long been uncertainty about exactly when Stalin was born in the
Georgian city of Gori. But since he came to power in the Soviet Union his
official date of birth has always been given as December 21, 1879. In Gori,
whose central square is still dominated by an enormous bronze monument to
Stalin, several hundred supporters gathered to praise the Soviet-era leader.
Waving Soviet flags, they gathered outside Stalin's family home, now a museum,
and then marched to the city's central square. They held a brief rally and laid
wreaths at his statue. "It is terrible that some people try to put Stalin and
Hitler on the same level. Stalin was a liberator, while Hitler was an aggressor
and colonizer of peoples," Stalin's grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, said. afp
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
