Stalin: A Killer, After All

[WSJ_law_blog]

As Churchill pointed out, history is written by the victors. But the recent suit against a Russian newspaper, brought by the grandson of Stalin (yes, that Stalin, Churchill’s Yalta Conference lunchmate) alleging that dear old Grandpop, Iosif Vissarionovich, was defamed when he was tagged a “bloodthirsty cannibal” still shocked us for its audacity.

But strike one up for justice. A judge at a Moscow district court today rejected Yevgeny Dzhugashvili’s claim that Novaya Gazeta defamed the Soviet leader, a ruling that is being interpreted as a rare victory for Stalin’s critics in a country where many believe the USSR’s World War II victory is owed to Stalin’s leadership and where demonstrations of power are often admired. Much of Stalin’s power was consolidated during a great purge. Though the number of deaths attributed to this terror varies, many historians pin it at about 700,000 for the years of 1937 and 1938 alone. Here’s the AP report.

The AP writes:

On the winning side, the mood was more of relief than celebration.

“What should have happened, happened,” Anatoly Yablokov, the author of the Novaya Gazeta article and the newspaper’s co-defendant, said before swiftly leaving the courthouse. “It’s a decision based on the law.”

Stalin’s grandson, who did not attend the trial, has five days to appeal. For previous LB coverage on this trial, click here. The grandson had demanded that the newspaper apologize, retract the article and pay monetary damages. End of post.