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Title: Stalin has been defamed, says grandson
Source:
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URL Source: http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/br ... ys-grandson-20091009-gq8r.html
Published: Oct 13, 2009
Author: DAVID NOWAK
Post Date: 2009-10-13 13:09:32 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 127
Comments: 12
Stalin has been defamed, says grandson DAVID NOWAK October 9, 2009 Stalin's grandson is suing a Russian newspaper that he claims called into question the Soviet dictator's honour and dignity. The grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is demanding 10 million roubles ($A375,235) compensation from the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. He contests its claims in an April 22 article that Josef Stalin personally signed execution orders for thousands of Soviet and foreign citizens. The article, titled Beria Found Guilty, cited what it said were recently declassified Soviet archive documents that Stalin signed and handed to feared secret police chief Lavrenti Beria. The plaintiff, who was not present at Thursday's hearing at Basmanny District Court, also is demanding monetary compensation from the author of the article, Anatoly Yablokov. Recent years have seen an escalation in efforts to rehabilitate the dictator who, according to the rights group Memorial, ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 citizens during a series of purges that peaked in the late 1930s. Earlier this year, Stalin was voted the third-greatest Russian of all time in a television poll. A plaque bearing his name that decades ago vanished from the vestibule of a Moscow metro station was recently restored. And former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev last year denounced efforts to portray Stalin as a "brilliant manager" rather than a murderous autocrat. "There are some people in power who want to see the history of the country as entirely glorious, as a step from victory to victory," said Genri Reznik, Novaya Gazeta's defence lawyer. The Kremlin's goal, Reznik said, is that "nothing must darken the attitudes of our people, and all negativity ... plays into the hands of our enemy." Plaintiff lawyer Yury Mukhin disagreed. "Stalin for many people is the symbol of an honest and fair leader," he said. A victory in the libel case would vindicate that version of history, he said. At the courtroom, a gaggle of retirees showed solidarity for Stalin. They carried his portraits and derided his critics, eulogising the dictator for fending off the Nazis in World War II. Nina Vlasenko, a 78-year-old retiree, said: "If there had been no Stalin, then we would not have won the war. Look how the war was going. All Europe was under the heel of Hitler. And now Hitlerism is compared with Stalinism. We do not agree. Stalin didn't attack anyone, he just freed us." Nina Khrushcheva, the great granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, said she was "absolutely on the side of Novaya Gazeta." Her ancestor first exposed Stalin's crimes and allowed the 1962 publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which told of Stalin's network of slave labour camps. Khrushcheva, who teaches in the international affairs program at the New School in New York, told The Associated Press that the lawsuit is evidence that at least some Russian officials are determined to promote what she called the myth of Stalin as a wise if strict leader. "The fact that in 2009 we're still unable to separate facts from fiction is mind-boggling," she said. The trend toward a softer portrayal of Stalin was apparently bucked by the introduction of The Gulag Archipelago as required reading in schools this year. Khrushcheva described the authorities' treatment of history as "schizophrenic." The government in recent years has tried to control how history is taught, dumping textbooks that deviate from the new official line. In 2003, authorities banned a history text that was critical of Stalin. Novaya Gazeta, meanwhile, also is fighting a libel action filed by Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Russia's southern republic of Chechnya. Kadyrov denies the paper's allegation of his involvement in the murder of one of his former bodyguards in Vienna, Austria, earlier this year. "These lawsuits are contributing to an oppressive climate of intimidation," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "They also highlight how two subjects - the Soviet past and the situation in the Russian Caucasus - are being steadily and silently turned into taboos."
Poster Comment: I wonder if some of the tiny, left-wing blogs are passing the hat for his grandson's law suit?
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Gee, sounds a lot like our government???
In other news, the Jeffry Dahmer's parents are suing various media outlets because they made their son out to be something less than the Nice Boy that they both know that he was.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
Classical caustic sarcasm. Well done.
BREAKING: Dylan Klebold was nuts!
Yeah, well... When he wanted soldiers, to what did Stalin appeal? Russian nationalism.
The western world’s first parliament, called the Althing, was established in Iceland. It has convened every year without exception since 911 AD.
Yeah, well I bet none of them are Kulaks.
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976 The purpose of the legal system is to protect the elites from the wrath of those they plunder.- Elliott Jackalope
Check history... Stalin was enraged when his son was captured by the Germans...BECAUSE HE DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE RATHER THAN BE CAPTURED. Some leader, some Father.
If the American people are any indication, I believe that many people in Russia liked Stalin and Communism. Many people just aren't cut out for freedom and liberty. It's too much responsibility for them. They don't want to have the responsibility of making decisions. They'd much rather have others do it for them. My bet is that those who are still enamored with Stalin come in two types. The ones who made out like bandits because of the fortunate positions they found themselves and the ones who liked not having to think.
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976 The purpose of the legal system is to protect the elites from the wrath of those they plunder.- Elliott Jackalope
Hello Mudder - Hello Fadder
Stalin made Hitler look like a Sunday school teacher. He trained Hitlers Army and AF, showed them how to run a concentration camp, real nice human.
That's why I wish Hitler had been allowed to kick the snot out of the Russians. That wasn't our war.
Ha ha haaaa ! I can only hope that Hitler is butt-raping Stalin while some canibals are devouring their raw flesh in hell...
The government in recent years has tried to control how history is taught, dumping textbooks that deviate from the new official line.
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
#3. To: SonOfLiberty (#2)
In other news, the Jeffry Dahmer's parents are suing various media outlets because they made their son out to be something less than the Nice Boy that they both know that he was.
#4. To: SonOfLiberty (#2)
#5. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Khrushcheva described the authorities' treatment of history as "schizophrenic."
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
"Stalin for many people is the symbol of an honest and fair leader," he said.
#7. To: Hayek Fan (#6)
"Stalin for many people is the symbol of an honest and fair leader," he said.
#8. To: Cynicom (#7)
#9. To: Cynicom (#7)
Some leader, some Father.
#10. To: Jethro Tull (#9)
#11. To: Cynicom (#10)
#12. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
I wonder if some of the tiny, left-wing blogs are passing the hat for his grandson's law suit?
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
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