Stalin’s grandson fuming

Tatiana Shaumian

It promises to be a fascinating trial. The grandson of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is suing a Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta for an article about the execution of thousands of Polish officers early in the WW II. The soldiers, captured by Soviet troops who invaded eastern Poland under the terms of a pact with Nazi Germany, were buried in the Katyn Forest in western Russia.

The article, authored by historian Anatoly Yablokov, presents documentation that it says proves the murders were ordered by Stalin. Yablokov is a leader of the human rights group Memorial which is dedicated to resurrecting the truth about the victims of Stalinism.

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili (Stalin’s original family name) insists that his grandfather was innocent. His lawyer, Leonid Zhura, made clear that it’s about much more than just the matter of the polish officers. For many years the USSR insisted the Poles were killed by the Nazis, a version that is upheld by Stalin’s supporters to this day. But the trial is likely to touch upon many other allegations against Stalin.

Russian conservatives, and old-time Communists, have been reeling from what they see as attacks on Stalin by liberals and pro-Western intellectuals for decades, and they blame these anti-Stalin attitudes for the country’s decline under subsequent leaders.

“Half a century of lies have been poured over Stalin’s reputation and he cannot defend himself from the grave,” Zhura told journalists. “So this case is essential to put the record straight. We want to rehabilitate Stalin. He turned populations into peoples, he presided over a golden era of literature and the arts, he was a real leader.”

The attacks these days are coming from many directions. Ukrainians have launched a case against Russia, as the successor State of the USSR, claiming that “genocide” was committed against Ukrainians during the Stalinist collectivisation of the early 1930s, which led to the deaths of millions by starvation.

Poles, and others, blame the USSR equally with Nazi Germany for starting the WW II under the terms of a secret deal attached to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a controversy we discussed in this space last week. It may be that Russians have the biggest grievances of all.

Millions of Russians died in the famine which is associated with collectivisation, and millions more were killed in Stalin’s purges or packed off to the GULAG prison camps. Stalin’s strategic errors in the early stages of WW II led to catastrophic setbacks which cost millions more lives.

A poll conducted early this month by the independent Levada Centre in Moscow illustrates just how divided Russians are over Stalin’s legacy. It found that over a third of Russians, 38 per cent, regard Stalin as a “State criminal” — a harsh judgement indeed. But 44 per cent rejected that accusation, saying there was nothing criminal in Stalin’s leadership.

Russian liberals agree that the upcoming trial is about much more than dry historical disputes. Some claim that the Kremlin is whitewashing Stalin’s record in order to legitimise its own growing authoritarianism. Last month many protested when reconstruction at the Kurskaya Metro Station, in central Moscow, revealed that a Stalinist mural had been restored to its original form. The wall painting, which was altered under the reformist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, originally depicted this line from the Soviet national anthem: “Stalin raised us to be loyal to the nation. He inspired us to work and be heroic.”

Critics also point to a standard textbook being introduced in Russian high schools this year, which offers no discussion of Stalin’s crimes but does describe the old leader as “an effective manager”. They say this amounts to covering up key issues in Russian history, and thus ensuring that no healing process can take place.

Liberals want Russia to have some kind of equivalent of the Nuremberg trials in Germany, which identified war criminals, exposed their misdeeds and left behind a civilising body of law.

The fact that Russia still has not repudiated Stalin and his methods may mean that the country is condemned to repeat that nightmare.

Few experts believe that today’s Kremlin leaders are Stalinists, and many think the arguments over Stalin are a generational squabble that will eventually disappear. In any case Dzhugashvili vs. Novaya Gazeta, slated to begin next week, will be a spectacle to watch.

-- Dr Shaumian is Director, Centre for Indian Studies in Moscow