Russian activists concerned about public revival of Stalin cult of personality
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - A group of human rights activists and historians believes that the Stalin personality cult is experiencing a revival in the Russian public mind.
Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group, expressed this opinion at a round-able meeting on Stalinism held in Moscow on Thursday.
Participants named as an indication of the ideological rehabilitation of Stalin numerous recent publications hailing him as the leader of all times and nations.
Among the books on Stalin they singled out the series "50 Years Without the Leader," consisting of 50 novels dedicated to the dictator.
"This outburst of publications and the general hysteria over the suggestion to return the name of Stalingrad to Volgograd brought on by the [50th] anniversary of Stalin's death [on March 5, 2003] cannot be explained as nostalgia for a firm leading hand," she said.
She explained this outburst of nostalgia for order as inevitably rising in people who find themselves incapable of protecting their rights from the arbitrariness of law enforcement bodies and officials and the indifference of the authorities to ordinary people.
"If we fail to find the powers and means to look into our past and if we encourage this salutation of Herod by our silence, it will become impossible to build a law-governed state in Russia," she said.
In Alekseyeva's opinion, the crimes of Stalinism should be more widely debated in the media, using archived information to resist the revival of the Stalin cult.
An exhibition timed with the anniversary of Stalin's death called "Stalin: Man and Symbol" opened at the Museum of Russian Contemporary History in Moscow.
Along with presents dedicated to Stalin and posters with the slogan "Stalin - The Captain of the Land of Soviets" it features drawings by Stalin camp inmates and posters with "We won't let it happen again" written on them, as well as numerous portraits, photos and Stalin's personal belongings and autographs.