Medvedev Excludes Return of Stalinism to Russia

One year has passed since the moment Dmitry Medvedev came to office on May 7. This year was marked with a series of events significant for Russia. In April Medvedev and Obama signed a long-awaited agreement on nuclear weapons and later Kharkov agreement with Viktor Yanukovich, which gives the Black Sea fleet a chance to stay in Sevastopol at least until 2042. The warming in the relations between Russia and Poland, which appreciated Russia’s help after the crash near Smolensk, is also obvious.

Later the Russian leader ordered to post on the Internet the most important documents regarding Katyn from the “Special folder number one”. Now everyone can look at these documents and see for themselves what is truth and what are lies imposed for years.

On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, Dmitry Medvedev reminded the world again that without the Red Army, without the heroic deed and sacrifices of the Soviet people, Europe would not have been that flourishing as it is today. The Russian leader also mentioned the role of Stalin in the war.

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“There are absolutely obvious things – the Great Patriotic War was won by the Russian people, not Stalin and military chiefs, although their actions were of great importance. Yes, they played a significant role, but at the same time the war was won by the people and their enormous efforts, lives of a great number of people,” Medvedev stated in an interview to Izvestia. “I think this topic is overly discussed sometimes. If we talk about the attitude towards Stalin and some other leaders, in the 1990s there were plenty of admirers of this man but no one talked about renaissance of Stalinism. And now suddenly there are talks about it. Yes, historic figures may become objects of admiration. Sometimes young people do it, especially left wing youth. But it is their business nonetheless. Although, for the majority of people Stalin’s figure in the world is obvious, it does not provoke any warm emotions.”

The President expressed his disapproval of the symbols with the image of the Soviet leader. “We cannot talk about return of Stalinism in our day to day life, that we are returning the symbols, will be using posters or something else. This is not the case and will not be. This is absolutely ruled out. This is the current government ideology, if I may, and my personal assessment as the President of the Russian Federation. I would always separate the government assessment from personal ones,” the leader stressed.

Medvedev also talked about further decoding of documents from the military archives. “We should be doing it, do it openly, taking all secrecy off the documents of that period. It has been a long time, 65 years, and people should know all the truth about the war as well as the events of other periods. We should not be shy telling the truth about the war, the truth we had suffered for.”

Komsomolskaya Pravda

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Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov
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