PERM, October 30 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that Joseph Stalin and other leaders of the Soviet state of those times deserve the “harshest criticism,” because they “waged a war on their own people.”
“Not only Joseph Stalin, but a number of other officials, too, most certainly deserve the harshest criticism for what was happening then,” Medvedev said on the Day of Memory of Victims of Political Repression at a meeting with the regional branch of the United Russia party on Tuesday.
“This must stay in the annals of our history. It must not ever happen again. War against one’s own people is the gravest crime,” he added.
At the same time, Medvedev, who is the leader of the United Russia party, called on his fellow party members not to neglect the glorious chapters of the country’s history dating back to the Soviet period.
As an example he mentioned the Great Patriotic War, which can and must be described as a victory won by the whole country.
“It was a victory won by the whole country, including its leadership, whatever that leadership was like, and whatever our attitude to that leadership today. Many people (in that leadership) are not quite appealing in my opinion. But after all it was their victory, too, not just of the people but of the decisions that were made then. It was an accomplishment achieved not “in defiance of” but “in concert,” he said.
Medvedev welcomed the opening of the museum of political repression in the Perm territory. He regretted such museums have not yet appeared in the other regions, although there had been such initiatives.
“We must remember what happened then. Incidentally, here, in the territory of the Perm Territory this is more crucial than elsewhere, where people seem to have forgotten what was going on in the 1930s and 1940s,” Medvedev said.