Putin urges not to judge Stalin's legacy ''in black and white''
Moscow | Friday, Dec 4 2009 IST
 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged the nation not to judge Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in ''black and white''.

''Stalin's legacy remains ambiguous, and his achievements should be remembered as well as the crimes against the nation,'' Mr Putin said, answering a question during his marathon live TV phone-in session yesterday.

Mr Putin was asked to pick questions from a large number of entries sent in by the people.

''I left this question in, because I understand what a fiery issue it is,'' he said. ''This is widely discussed in society. And the problem is, you say something positive and someone will be unhappy, you say something negative, and someone else will be.

''In my view, you cannot give an overall assessment. It is clear that from 1924 to 1953, the country led by Stalin changed fundamentally,'' Mr Putin said.

''There was repression. This is a fact. Millions of our citizens suffered from this. And this way of running a state, to achieve a result, is not acceptable. It is impossible,'' he stressed.

''Certainly, in this period we encountered not only a cult of personality, but a massive crime against our own people. This is also a fact. And we must not forget this,'' he noted.

However, Mr Putin said such historical chains of events must be considered ''in their entirety''.

''We remember perfectly well the problems, particularly in the last period, with agriculture - queues for food and such like. The things that happened in this sphere did nothing good for rural communities. But industrialisation certainly did take place,'' he pointed out.

''We won the Great Patriotic War (WWII's Eastern Front). And whatever anyone may say, victory was achieved. Even when we consider the losses, no one now can throw stones at those who planned and led this victory,'' he said.

''If the war had been lost, we cannot even imagine the consequences,'' Mr Putin said.

-- (UNI) -- 04DF1.xml

 

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