A Russian woman carries a portrait of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in a Victory Day celebration in Moscow on May 9, 2008.
(NEWSCOM/FILE)Photos (1 of 1)
Call Stalin a murderer? Russian judge says an opposition weekly can.
Stalin's grandson tried to sue Novaya Gazeta over its characterization of the Russian leader. A judge ruled against him Tuesday, giving human rights advocates a boost.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent 10.14.09
MOSCOW – A small courtroom victory has Russian liberals breathing a tiny and momentary sigh of relief.
A Moscow judge on Tuesday ruled against Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, the grandson of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who had attempted to sue the opposition weekly Novaya Gazeta for $320,000 in damages over an article that accused Mr. Stalin of being a “murderer” who ordered the execution of his political foes.
Though the trial received little coverage in Russia’s state-dominated media, it has been breathlessly watched by liberals and human rights advocates, who fear that Russian history is being reshaped in order to whitewash Soviet-era crimes and curb criticism of latter-day Kremlin authoritarianism.
The judge at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court refused to consider any testimony or evidence concerning Stalin’s historical role, and made the narrow ruling that historian Anatoly Yablokov had the right to characterize Stalin as a “bloodthirsty cannibal” amid a discussion of recently declassified documents that show the dictator personally signed death orders for thousands of political opponents during the 1930s.
Both sides say they’re disappointed that the court refused to consider any wider historical evidence.
“We had hoped to turn this trial into a larger examination of Stalin, but the judge just ruled on my article,” says Mr. Yablokov. “Still, that’s a necessary outcome. I’m prepared to fight this to the bitter end.”
Mr. Dzhugashvili’s lawyer, Leonid Zhura, insists that the trial was fixed by Russian authorities who fear a public discussion about the “greatness” the country achieved under Stalin, and says he has already filed an appeal.
“It was an awful trial, a travesty, and we were not allowed to speak,” Mr. Zhura says. “We don’t understand how a person [Stalin] can be declared a criminal without any evidence?”
Russia’s beleaguered liberals have been appalled by what they see as an effort by today’s Kremlin leaders to downplay Stalin-era crimes while using the reflected glory of Soviet past achievements to burnish their own images.
“A very large section of Russian society views Stalin with respect, because he’s a symbol of glorious history, particularly the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II,” says Nikolai Petrov, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow.
“Some mid-level officials make use of this, because it’s a unifying theme in a very disunited country. In any case, no Russian leader today is in a position to denounce Stalin for his crimes. That would be very unpopular,” he says.
The editors of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s few remaining critical news outlets, have argued that Russia needs an equivalent of the “Nuremburg trials,” where Germany’s former Nazi leaders were judged, before Russia’s legal climate and political culture can be changed.
“We don’t believe Russia can move forward, even economically, until we have cleared Stalinism out of our system,” says Oleg Klebnikov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta. “This was a fair judgment, but we want to see Stalinism condemned.”
But amid economic crisis and growing Kremlin authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin and his successor, Dmitri Medvedev, that seems a distant prospect, say experts.
“There was a window of opportunity to deal with the baggage of the past in the early 1990s,” after the USSR collapsed, says Mr. Petrov. “But now it’s practically impossible.”
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2. Annelies | 10.14.09
“Baggage”?! Sir, I’m afraid what you’ve got there is a wagon train loaded to the limit!
Seriously, Russia has to deal with the past. Just like the US has to deal with race. It’s not fun, or easy, but it is necessary.
3. Not in denial | 10.14.09
Not only did Stalin murder his dissentors and rivals, but the Russian citizens were encouraged to rat out their family and neighbors, who would be jailed or murdered because once arrested, they were automatically considered guilty. The Russian police refused to admit that they could make mistakes. I think the Russian people don’t want to admit that their ancestors lived in a time when fear and boredom was their everyday existence.
4. Jacob | 10.15.09
Problem with Russia (and many other countries) is that they have this obsession with “national strength”. This is a case of taking pride in the wrong things. A man who murders his own countrymen for his personal ambitions should not be considered a hero by any measure, yet he is praised for strengthening Russia militarily.
If anything, they should follow America’s example. The U.S. was pathetically weak for over a century and relied on the Atlantic Ocean to protect it from adversaries. However, America was a democratic nation long before it was a powerful nation and that’s what matters.
5. Valeriy | 10.15.09
“Many cases of our Party and people, - said Stalin - will be distorted, and spat upon primarily abroad, and in our country too.
No, obviously not be disputed that the transformation of the Soviet Union in the superpower and the emergence of the bipolar world, divided on many political and economic principles, was primarily associated with the activities of Stalin. Other leaders, from which depended the fate of people in the past century are already in the row, as their effect was not global and regional in nature.”
————————
But what main pro-stalin facts?
IMHO only 3
1. Strong economic growth for USSR. Hmm… this plus is plus only for USSR.
2. Victory in WWII (and freedom for Europe). US and UK played a secondary role and service role in the world fight against Nazi.
3. Nuclear weapons NOT ONLY for US. And not big wars - for 50 years. And millions living healthy civilians. In hundreds of cities - potential Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
Was Stalin the greatest Russian?
6. Realist | 10.24.09
Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, the grandson of Joseph Stalin, who sued Russian weekly Novaya Gazeta for $320,000 in damages, has plainly demonstrated a business trait, not uncommon among Georgians. I doubt if he trully believed in Stalin’s innocence as his responsibility for extermination of millions cannot be whitewashed by any reference to WWII or to so-called economic achievements. At the same time, the significance of the trial in the Moscow District court is minor for it would really take an equivalent of an international ‘Nuremburg trial’ to explore the criminal record of the man who run the Soviet Union practically unchallenged from 1924 till 1953. Of course, Russia would never agree to such a trial as it would reveal criminal deeds of tens of thousands of Stalin’s obedient followers starting with the likes of Yezhov and Beria all the way down the chain of the GPU-NKVD-KGB command.
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1. Tired of revisionist History | 10.14.09
The fact that Stalin was a mass murderer is well doccumented in the former USSR archives. No grandson wants to admit to this and he should not be blamed in any way for it but, the facts remain. Stalin had absolute power and was an absolute dictator. He killed or jailed his dissentors and rivals like any other absolute dictator. Authors such as Solzynetzin reference the gulag system and the use of Siberian “labor camps” as repositories for Stalins “refuse”. This brutality was emblematic of the USSR… Incidently, I am unsure if Putin is not a mini “Papa Joe” who would gladly, given the proper set of circumstances, deal with his rivals in the same way…