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2 November 2009
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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
observed the day during his two terms as
president, Stalin at the same time experienced a
revival as a strong leader who defeated Nazi
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
“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
Last month, Medvedev, 44, published an online
manifesto exhorting his fellow citizens to join
him in modernizing
corruption, fighting alcoholism and reducing the
country’s dependence on natural resources.
Medvedev’s readiness to pinpoint
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
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.”
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