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[Anton Orekh] believes that a clear official position should be that [Iosif Stalin] was "a criminal and a hangman" and his actions were "crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union".
"In this case, the attitude towards Stalin was expressed in 1961, when Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. To rename again, even temporarily, this wonderful Russian city after a bloody tyrant who murdered millions of his own citizens and who caused irreparable damage to the nation's gene pool is a blasphemy," Levichev said, as quoted by the party's press service.
The Russian educational and human rights centre Memorial has criticized the Volgograd City Duma's decision to use the name Hero City Stalingrad several days a year at public events to commemorate the city's important historical dates, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 31 January.
Stalingrad, named after Soviet leader Iosif Stalin, was the site of a major World War II battle. In 1961, as part of the de-Stalinization campaign, the city was renamed Volgograd.
"It is a sign of deep ignorance to associate the victory [in the battle] with a tyrant, because of whom an incredibly high price was paid for the victory," one of the Memorial leaders Yan Rachinskiy told Interfax on 31 January.
He also criticized plans to run buses with images of Stalin in St Petersburg and some other cities by 2 February, the day German forces were defeated at Stalingrad in 1942.
"This shows yet again that we still have no formal legal and political assessment of crimes committed by the Bolshevik regime, to a large extent by Stalin and his entourage," Rachinskiy said.
Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said he would appeal against the Volgograd City Duma's decision.
"This is an insult for those fallen at the then Stalingrad. They certainly deserve to be commemorated but not in this form," Lukin told Interfax.
Deputy speaker of the State Duma and chairman of the A Just Russia party Nikolay Levichev described the Volgograd City Duma's decision as blasphemy.
"In this case, the attitude towards Stalin was expressed in 1961, when Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. To rename again, even temporarily, this wonderful Russian city after a bloody tyrant who murdered millions of his own citizens and who caused irreparable damage to the nation's gene pool is a blasphemy," Levichev said, as quoted by the party's press service.
According to Ekho Moskvy regular radio commentator Anton Orekh, if the city is renamed Stalingrad, "this will inspire not those who cherish the memory of the war and for whom this name is a true symbol of heroism and courage, but those who are trying hard to revive the corpse of the Generalissimo".
Orekh believes that a clear official position should be that Iosif Stalin was "a criminal and a hangman" and his actions were "crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union".
Credit: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1334, 1327, 1337 31 Jan 13; Ekho Moskvy website, Moscow in Russian 1304 31 Jan 13
Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1334, 1327, 1337 31 Jan 13; Ekho Moskvy website, Moscow in Russian 1304 31 Jan 13/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC
