Posted on 10/13/2009 11:48:54 AM PDT by Baladas
AP) A Russian court ruled against Josef Stalin's grandson Tuesday in a libel suit over a newspaper article that said the Soviet dictator sent thousands of people to their deaths.
A judge at a Moscow district court rejected Yevgeny Dzhugashvili's claim that Novaya Gazeta defamed Stalin in an April article referring to the strongman leader as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."
A ruling against Novaya Gazeta would have been seen as an exoneration of Stalin more than 50 years after his death. It would have been a major setback to beleaguered Russian liberals who say the country must acknowledge the truth of its bloody past and accuse the Kremlin of whitewashing history.
The late-evening ruling was a rare victory for Stalin's critics in their fight against 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 fearsome purges that peaked in the late 1930s.
"Behind the plaintiff's bench are those who are throttling freedom ... and giving the country back to Stalin," defense lawyer Genri Reznik told the court during hours of tense proceedings Tuesday. Only a few journalists were allowed into the Basmanny district courtroom.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“Thousands of people?” Stalin murdered thousands every HOUR!
I think Stalin may only have ordered the death of thousands. His policies (including internal exile) lead to tens of millions of other deaths. He also bears great responsibility for the Great Patriotic War which killed 20 million Soviets.
I would be insulted too!
He killed between 40 and 60 MILLION! He made Hilter look like a beginner, but you wont learn about it in school, makes that whole communism thing look bad.
Stalin personally signed page after page of execution orders every day. The 700,000 figure may only refer to the deaths he personally ordered. The real figure is at least 20 million, not including another 20-30 million in WW2. Sure glad my grandparents emigrated in the 1890’s.
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