Portraits of Stalin and the Anniversary Victory Day

Statement by the International and Moscow Memorial Societies. Press Release. March 3, 2010

Officials from the Moscow Mayor’s Office have stated that portraits of Stalin are to be put up in the city for the 65th Anniversary of Victory Day. As is usual, it is not known by whom and at what level this decision was taken, but it is clear that the portraits will be produced at the expense of the taxpayers, who include those who lost their relatives through the fault of the dictator. But it is not a question of money, and nor is it that some of those invited to the celebrations will probably not wish to come to a city, decorated in such a dubious manner. The appearance of portraits of Stalin on Victory Day is an insult to the memory of the fallen...

If portraits of Stalin do indeed appear on the streets of Moscow, we shall do all within our power to ensure that, simultaneously, they will be accompanied by other placards, stands, and posters which tell of the tyrant’s crimes and of his true place in the history of the Great War for the Fatherland. We are convinced that hundreds of Muscovites – the children and grandchildren of the front-line soldiers, of those to whom Victory really belongs – will help us in this.

Portraits of Joseph Stalin have no place in the Victory Day celebrations

Statement by the Chairman of the YABLOKO party. February 18, 2010

Placards picturing Joseph Stalin that have recently appeared in Moscow represent an insult to the memory of our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers who won a victory over fascism. This is another manifestation of hatred towards Russian people and all other nations of Russia and the former USSR that suffered from the genocide launched by Stalin.

Many years have passed since the end of the Second World War, and multiple documents and facts showing that the Victory was won despite of rather than owing to Joseph Stalin and his system have been disclosed...

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO proposes to place in Moscow streets and squares placards reproducing war-time photographs and showing the heroism of the true victors of the war.

The Embrace of Stalinism

By Arseny Roginsky, 16 December 2008

Why is Russia romanticising the memory of Stalinism, enquires Memorial's founder Arseny Roginsky, when its defining feature was the use of terror?
The memory of Stalinism in contemporary Russia raises problems which are painful and sensitive. There is a vast amount of pro-Stalinist literature on the bookstalls: fiction, journalism and pseudo-history. In sociological surveys, Stalin invariably features among the first three "most prominent figures of all times". In the new school history textbooks, Stalinist policy is interpreted in a spirit of justification.
There are also hundreds of crucial volumes of documents, scholarly articles and monographs on Stalinism. The achievements of these historians and archivists is unquestionable. But if they do have any influence on the mass consciousness, it is too weak. The means of disseminating the information have not been there, and nor in recent years has the political will. However, the deepest problem lies in the current state of our national historical memory of Stalinism.

Forward looking approach essential for reform in Russia

ELDR Press Release. February 5, 2010

Russia can only move forward in developing a truly fair, free and democratic society if it puts to bed once and for all the ghosts of its past. This was the conclusion from a seminar organised by the European Liberal Democrat's parliamentary group about "how the Kremlin thinks and what this means for Europe" that took place last Wednesday.

Panelists, including ELDR's Russian party leaders, Sergey Mitrokhin, Yaboloko, and Mikhail Kasyanov, People's Democratic Union, agreed that the specter of Stalin's Russia is still hanging over modern day society and is preventing the country from initiating the reforms that are needed to facilitate its development, including strengthening its ties with the European Union.

Sergey Mitrokhin spoke about telling Russian President Medvedev the importance of publically acknowledging that Stalinism is in the past. Mitrokhin referred to what he called a "hankering for former times" that is pervading the thoughts of Russian citizens as the present government fails to deliver the reforms that are necessary for the country to proposer in the 21st century.

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Memorial’s lectures in YABLOKO. The History of the Soviet Terror

Annoucement, February 4, 2010

We are proud to announce that we are launching lectures of Memorial heads and experts within the programme of our Evening University.
Please find below the schedule of the first lectures...

Please also note that you can see Memorial’s exhibition A History of an Execution at YABLOKO’s office...

Overcoming the Totalitarian Past: Foreign Experience and Russian Problems by Galina Mikhaleva. Research Centre for the East European Studies, Bremen, February 2010. Feburary, 2010

Russia’s leaders are looking to the country’s history to find ways to justify renewed imperial ambitions. While a study of foreign experience shows that there are numerous ways to for a country to deal with its totalitarian past, the problem is complicated in the post-Communist context because politicians seek to use history as a tool for their own purposes. The YABLOKO party recently adopted a resolution dealing with the uses of history to stimulate democratic transition, but it so far has had no impact on Russian society.

Crimes Against Nations Do Not Have a Limitation Period

Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site, January 17, 2010

In my post I wrote that there had been different crimes of communism against nations, and that they had been taking not only the form of terror or Famine genocide. Artificial division of nations implemented throughout the Soviet history is also a crime. [President of Ukraine] Viktor Yuschenko has been insisting on consideration of the Famine genocide only as a crime against the Ukrainian nation. In my view this represents typical political manoeuvring. Stalinist-Bolsheviks crimes targeted not only the Ukrainian nation. It is undeserving to speculate with such things for political reasons and basing on our common tragedy boost nationalism and hatred among nations.

If International Tribunal on the crimes of communism could take place, there would be certainly raised an issue about criminal separation of nations by means of arbitrary boundaries. It would be important for Russia, but before this Russia should on the state level and officially in the legal form condemn Stalinism as the hardest crime, including such crimes as deportation of nations and many other, including Famine genocide as a terrible crime of Stalin’s regime.

Russia’s Borders as a Communist Crime

Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site, January 15, 2010

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko put forward an initiative to call an international tribunal on the crimes of communism.

I think that his initiative should be completely supported by the Russian leaders. This would be a good method to finally give a distinct state assessment to the criminal acts of Bolsheviks – communists.

15th Congress of the YABLOKO party. On Stalinism and Bolshevism
Resolution, December 21, 2009

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO considers preservation of the Bolshevist – Stalinist type of thinking in the authorities and the society and picturing of the repressive regime as a variant of the norm be one of the acutest problems of today’s Russia. Growth of violence in politics and public life, acts of terror and political murders, the authoritarian regime and repressive law enforcement system, cynicism of the authorities and apathy of the population, replacement of the reforms by their imitation represent a direct consequence of this problem.

Propaganda of Stalinism should be prohibited

Press release, December 21, 2009

Grigory Yavlinsky: Vote for the people you know, people you can turn for help

Grigory Yavlinsky’s interview to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, October 8, 2009

Presentation of the book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy took place in Moscow

Press Release, October 6, 2009

Putinjugend on the march

Alexei Melnikov’s blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site,

September 30, 2009

“Agents Smith” conducted a flashmob against censorship in the Internet

Press-Release, September 30, 2009

YABLOKO’s Political Committee determined the tasks of the responsible opposition in modern Russia

Press-Release, September 26, 2009

An action against memorizing Joseph Stalin in the interior of the Kurskaya metro station, Moscow, Press Release, September 15, 2009

An action against memorizing Joseph Stalin in the interior of the Kurskaya metro station, Moscow, Press Release, September 15, 2009

Book “Overcoming of Stalin’s Legacy” available now, Press Release, September 2, 2009

Roar: Stalin divides Russians even in metro, Russia Today, September 2, 2009
Restriction on activities of foreign teachers represents restoration of the iron curtain July 17, 2009

OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY THE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION July 3, 2009

Only truth can be set against distortion of history Press Release, May 27, 2009

Accusations against organisers of the exhibition “Prohibited Art – 2006 ” represent a recurrence of Stalinism Statement , May 29, 2009

Overcoming bolshevism and stalinism as a key factor for Russia’s transformation in the 21st century March, 11, 2009.

Interview of Grigory Yavlinsky for the “Geroi Dnya”

(“Hero of the Day”) programme, the NTV, December 21, 2000

The Yabloko faction: "The leadership of Russia is turning the country back to the past, regression and consequently a historic defeat"

Press Release 08.12.00

The speech of Grigory Yavlinsky that the State Duma was afraid to hear

December 8, 2000

Declaration on the State Hymn

The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, The State Duma, The Yabloko faction

December 7, 2000

Press conference of the First Deputy Heads of Yabloko and the SPS factions Sergei Ivanenko and Viktor Pokhmelkin.

The State Duma, November 22, 2000.

Declaration of the Yabloko Association on changing the state hymn of the Russian Federation

October 18, 2000

Yabloko proposes the march “Farewell of a Slavic woman” as a new hymn of Russia

Press Release, 18.10.2000

The leaders of Yabloko and the Union of Right-Wing Yabloko's representative thinks that raising the question of Lenin's burial is ill-timed

Press Release, 13.12.2000

UNION OF RIGHT-WING FORCES WANTS LENIN OUT OF THE MAUSOLEUM

Moskovsky Komsomolets, December 14, 2000

Duma to consider monument to Nicholas II on Lubyanka
Interfax, October 10, 2002
Moscow, 24 April: The leader of the Russian liberal party Yabloko, Grigoriy Yavlinsky, According to information agencies, there are grounds for thinking that during his meeting with Edward Shevardnadze, President Putin has found the right solutions to Russian-Georgian MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - The Duma Council submitted a draft resolution to erect a monument to Russian Emperor Nicholas II on Moscow's Lubyanskaya Square on the agenda for the Duma session on October 16.

Communist Icons Suffer Mixed Fates In Modern Moscow
Wall Street Journal, By Claudia Rosett, October 15, 2002
Making monuments is rarely simple, as New Yorkers debating the right memorial for Sept. 11 can attest. But for controversial trends in the commemoration business, it's hard to top modern Moscow. Making a post-Soviet break with the past has meant scrapping some of communism's many trappings, including the goose-stepping honor guard at Lenin's tomb, the plethora of Soviet place names, and, most famously, a huge bronze statue of the KGB's founding father, Felix Dzerzhinsky. But the landscape remains littered with mementos of state-sanctioned mass murder -- put there as an exercise in self-exaltation by the former Soviet rulers, who ordained the murdering.

Open Letter
On the creation of a monument to the victims of political repressions
Izvestiya, September 26, 2002
When the Soviet totalitarian system collapsed at the end of 1980s, a number of outstanding figures in literature and art commented on the need to immortalise the memory of the victims of political terror in the Soviet Union by creating a monument. However, this idea was not implemented then for objective and subjective reasons.

On the creation of a monument to commemorate the victims of political repressions at Lubyanka Square in Moscow
Statement of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO. September 15, 2002
The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO considers the restoration of Dzerzhinsky’s monument at Lubyanka Square in Moscow inadmissible.

Luzhkov Wants to Resurrect Iron Felix
Moscow Times, By Nabi Abdullaev, September 16, 2002
Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, the country's two main liberal parties, announced Friday Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Friday called for the resurrection of the towering statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, in a surprise move that drew sharp criticism from liberal politicians.

Russian liberals rally against KGB statue
United Press International, September 16, 2002
MOSCOW, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A Russian liberal party and human rights activists staged a rally Monday in central Moscow to block the return of a statue of Soviet-era secret police chief Felix Dzerzhinsky to its site in front of the FSB security service headquarters.