[lbo-talk] Town in Russia calls for Stalin rehabilitation

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 15 08:49:15 PDT 2005


Click on URL for picture of the statue. Volgograd is a good place for it I think.

Friday, April 15, 2005. Issue 3147. Page 3.

An Appeal to Rehabilitate Stalin

By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer

Members of the Oryol city legislature have appealed to the country's leaders to rehabilitate Josef Stalin, put up monuments to the Soviet dictator and rename city streets after him.

In their appeal to President Vladimir Putin, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, the signatories argued that it had never been proved that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of millions of people during his rule.

Local human rights advocates denounced the appeal as cynical and disrespectful to victims of repression.

The appeal called for a re-evaluation of Stalin's historical role, mainly over his part in the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

It was signed by 33 of the city's 35 deputies, a spokeswoman for the city's legislature, Olga Patenkova, said.

"The idea of the appeal belongs to deputy Mikhail Vdovin, who said that veterans' groups had urged him to demand historical justice for Stalin and ask that people stop smearing his name," Patenkova said by telephone from Oryol.

Vdovin could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Vladimir Krayukhin, an Oryol-based human rights advocate, said that the same city legislature in 1993 passed a resolution commemorating Sept. 11 as a memorial day for local victims of political repression.

"On that day in 1943, some 150 political prisoners in a prison camp in the Oryol region were executed by firing squad. ... Stalin personally sanctioned the execution," Krayukhin said by telephone.

But Krayukhin said that in the 12 years since the revolution, no regional or city officials and lawmakers had ever showed up at the monument on Sept. 11 to pay their respects.

"This appeal is a slap in the face to all these victims and their children and grandchildren," Krayukhin said, adding that pro-Stalin sentiment in the Oryol region, whose governor, Yegor Stroyev, is a Communist, remained strong.

Sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has found a home in Volgograd for his controversial new statue portraying Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the 1945 Yalta conference.

After the bronze 4-meter-tall monument was rejected by Moscow and Yalta, the sculptor presented it to Volgograd, which accepted the gift.

In an effort to head off criticism, the city's authorities have decided to put the monument on display in the Battle of Stalingrad museum complex, Interfax reported museum director Boris Usik as saying.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/04/15/012.html

Nu, zayats, pogodi!

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