Newspaper in Moscow says it did not libel Josef Stalin
MOSCOW — A Russian newspaper defended itself in a Moscow court today against charges it libeled Josef Stalin by reporting the Soviet dictator had sent thousands to their deaths.
Stalin's grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, sued the Novaya Gazeta newspaper for writing Stalin personally signed execution orders for thousands of Soviet and foreign citizens. The April 22 article was based on recently declassified Soviet documents.
The grandson, who was not present at today's hearing, demands compensation from the newspaper and the author of the article, Anatoly Yablokov.
The defense presented evidence in court of Stalin's repressions, including Russian school textbooks, said Oleg Khlebnikov, a Novaya Gazeta deputy editor.
Dzhugashvili's lawyer, Yury Mukhin, said the judge was wrong to allow such evidence.
"How can a textbook prove that Stalin was a tyrant?" Mukhin told journalists during a break. Few reporters were allowed inside the small courtroom.
Recent years have seen an escalation in efforts to rehabilitate the dictator who, according to the rights group Memorial, ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 citizens during a series of purges that peaked in the late 1930s.
Stalin is often revered in Russia for leading the Soviet Union to victory in World War II.
Earlier this year, he was voted the third-greatest Russian of all time in a television poll.
