The mass killings under Joseph Stalin cannot be justified, President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday, in a rare condemnation by the Kremlin of the Soviet dictator still seen as a hero by many in Russia. Millions of people were killed in purges and forced collectivisation as Stalin asserted his power in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, actions seen by most historians as one of the worst crimes in human history.
Yet Stalin remains lauded in Russia for his role in leading the Soviet Union to victory in World War II, and last year even came a close third in a television poll for the greatest Russian ever. "I am convinced that the memory of national tragedies is as sacred as those of victories," Medvedev said in a posting on his videoblog to mark Friday's national day of remembrance for the victims of political repression. "Even now, you hear it said that the huge losses were justified by some kind of higher state aim," Medvedev said.
"No development of a country, none of its successes or ambitions can be reached at the price of human losses and grief. Nothing can be put higher than the value of human life. "For repressions there is no justification," he said.
Arseny Roginsky, chairman of the board of the Memorial rights group which has waged a sometimes lonely struggle to preserve historical memory in Russia, praised Medvedev's words but said they needed to be translated into actions. "What he said is important and very much needed. And if these words were accepted this could start a whole new movement forwards," Roginsky told AFP. "But for the moment we can only await concrete actions," he said, saying Russia needed more museums and books remembering the repression and more assistance for its victims.
"I have too often been witness to Medevdev saying things that are not fulfilled into actions," Roginsky said. On October 30, 2007, Russia's then president and current strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke out on the purges on a visit to the Butovsky Poligon outside Moscow there thousands of victims were killed. But Roginsky said that two years ago Putin had "only expressed sympathy and no more. Whereas Medvedev has now said a whole range of important things."
October 30 marks the date in 1974 when prisoners at several camps proclaimed a day of political prisoners in the Soviet Union. The date was enshrined as national day of remembrance for political repression just before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then it has been marked annually, albeit with ceremonies that are distinctly low-key.
Dozens laid wreaths at the Solovetsky Stone, a memorial metres (yards) from the headquarters of the former KGB secret police in Moscow. The stone, from the Solovetsky Islands in northern Russia which was home to one of the most notorious Soviet camps, has become a traditional place to remember repression. A church service was also held in a chapel at the Butovsky Poligon, television pictures showed. Medvedev expressed concern about polls showing that almost 90 percent of Russians aged 18-24 could not name well-known figures who had suffered in the purges. "It is very important that young people are capable of emotionally empathising with one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Russia," Medvedev said.
The president, who took over the Kremlin from Putin last year, had until now spent considerably more time accusing Moscow's ex-Communist neighbours and the West of underplaying the Soviet contribution in World War II. In May, Medvedev formed a commission to fight historical "falsifications" over World War II, a move condemned by some historians.
Making his position clear, he said: "We devote a lot of attention to the fight against falsifying history. Somehow we think that we are only talking about the unacceptable re-examination of the results of World War II. "We (must) accept our past as it is.... No one except ourselves can preserve the memory of history and pass it on to new generations," Medvedev said.