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Johnson's Russia List 2009-#200 2 November 2009 [log in to unmask] A World Security Institute Project www.worldsecurityinstitute.org <outbind://16/www.worldsecurityinstitute.org> JRL homepage: www.cdi.org/russia/johnson <outbind://16/www.cdi.org/russia/johnson> Support JRL: http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/funding.cfm Your source for news and analysis since 1996 #1 Medvedev Criticizes Stalin, Terror in Signal to Putin By Lucian Kim Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Dmitry Medvedev called on Russians to remember the political terror under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, distancing himself from the historical ambivalence of his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "I'm convinced that the memory of national tragedies is no less sacred than the memory of victories," Medvedev said in a video blog posted on his Web site today. No state goals can justify the "great terror" seven decades ago, he said. More than 12 million Soviet citizens died in Stalin's excesses, according to human rights group Memorial. Oct. 30 is a day of remembrance of the victims of political repression in Russia. While Putin also observed the day during his two terms as president, Stalin at the same time experienced a revival as a strong leader who defeated Nazi Germany and turned a backward agrarian country into a nuclear superpower. Understanding one's history in its entirety is a sign of political maturity, Medvedev said. The people, not Stalin, were responsible for the military, economic and scientific achievements of the Soviet Union, he said. "This is a signal that there's a difference in values between Putin's elite and Medvedev's elite," said Dmitry Oreshkin, a Moscow-based political analyst. "If Medvedev wants modernization, he needs to make clear that it's not going to be by way of a 'great leap.'" Litmus Test Medvedev, handpicked by Putin as his successor last year, is seeking his own political voice amid Russia's worst economic crisis in a decade. Last month, Medvedev, 44, published an online manifesto exhorting his fellow citizens to join him in modernizing Russia by uprooting corruption, fighting alcoholism and reducing the country's dependence on natural resources. Medvedev's readiness to pinpoint Russia's weaknesses, invite a debate on the country's future and join the blogosphere contrasts with Putin's so-called power vertical that streamlined authority from the Kremlin down to local government. A person's opinion of Stalin is a political litmus test in contemporary Russia, Oreshkin said. While few deny the excesses that took place under the Soviet dictator, people who support Putin's top-down management style take a more benign view of him than those who disapprove of it, he said. "Overcoming indifference and a desire to forget its tragic aspects is no less important than studying the past," Medvedev said. "No one will do this but we ourselves." Medvedev called for the creation of museums to pass on the memory of the victims of state terror, a demand made in the past by liberal fringe groups like opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta. "Compared with Putin, this is a different tone," said Alexander Cherkasov, a board member of Moscow-based Memorial. "The question is what deeds will follow these words." ********