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'Homage to evil': Russian activists detained over Stalin protest on anniversary of his death
The Guardian UK ^ | Mar 8, 2019 | Marc Bennets in Moscow

Posted on 03/08/2019 8:03:28 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

As hundreds of supporters queued in Red Square to lay flowers at the grave of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on the 66th anniversary of his death this week, two young activists mingled with the crowd beneath the Kremlin’s walls.

“Burn in hell, executioner of the people and murderer of women and children!” shouted Yevgeny Suchkov, before snapping a red carnation and hurling it at a granite bust of Stalin. Police and Kremlin security officers reacted instantly, seizing him in a neck lock and dragging him away.

While all the attention was on Suchkov, his fellow activist, Olga Savchenko, stepped up to Stalin’s grave and calmly said: “Shame on the executioner.” She was also detained.

Suchkov, 21, said he had felt obliged to stage his protest because standing by and doing nothing in the face of an “homage to evil” would make him an accessory.

“And I have no intention of becoming an accessory to the evil that was Stalin and Stalinism,” he told the Guardian after his release from police custody. Savchenko, 25, said her great-grandfather was executed by the Soviet secret police in 1937 at the height of Stalin’s purges.

Both activists were ordered to pay a small fine, although they said police had not specified in their report exactly what offence they had been charged with.

Almost three decades on from the collapse of the communist system in Russia, thousands of metro stations, streets and squares across the country continue to bear the name of Soviet leaders and officials, while almost every town or city has a statue of Vladimir Lenin. Opinion polls indicate around 25% of Russians believe Stalin’s campaign of political terror, estimated to have killed some 20 million people, was “historically justified”.


(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Russia
KEYWORDS: protests; russia; stalin; ussr

1 posted on 03/08/2019 8:03:28 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

On my second deployment to Iraq, we were co-located with a (former Soviet) Georgian unit. One of thier trucks had a huge portrait of Joseph (former Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) Stalin.

They loved him because he was Georgia’s all time champion Russian killer.


2 posted on 03/08/2019 8:56:30 AM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Man arrested in Russia for attacking statue of Stalin

https://www.reddit.com/r/ANormalDayInRussia/comments/axx4r1/man_in_russia_arrested_for_attacking_stalin_statue/


3 posted on 03/08/2019 10:19:57 AM PST by Pining_4_TX ("Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." ~ H.L. Mencken)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

Just when you think the world can’t get any stranger ...

it gets stranger.


4 posted on 03/08/2019 10:22:53 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Unlike Germany Russia never formally removed its statues or edifices of Stalinism.


5 posted on 03/08/2019 1:25:18 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

“” “” On my second deployment to Iraq, we were co-located with a (former Soviet) Georgian unit. One of thier trucks had a huge portrait of Joseph (former Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) Stalin.

They loved him because he was Georgia’s all time champion Russian killer.”” “”

How sweet! I guess thread starter is ok with continued cult of Stalin in Georgia. When killing Russians he was a great guy.


6 posted on 03/08/2019 10:50:25 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: Sam Gamgee

Odd... didn’t the fall of the Soviet Union have a bunch of people tearing down Lenin and Stalin statues (and yet Marx’s statue was allowed to stay up)?


7 posted on 03/09/2019 4:28:47 AM PST by otness_e
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