Russian police raid office where Stalin-era documents stored
Another indication that Russian officialdom is sanitising Stalin’s legacy: Police raided the St Petersburg office of the human rights group Memorial and confiscated computer hard drives containing thousands of files with evidence of state-sponsored terror during the Stalin years.
Irina Flige, director of Memorial’s office, says the police raid was not an accident or a case of mistaken identity. She believes that the work of her organisation in exposing and publicising Stalin’s crimes has become the target of a government effort to whitewash the past and justify in theoretical terms the continued existence of a strong authoritarian state. “It is a war over memory,” she says.
“The front line” between despotism and democracy in Russia, she adds, “runs through the past”.
St Petersburg police have still made no public statement on the Dec 4 raid. At noon that day, nine policemen, including two wearing black face masks, came to Memorial’s headquarters and stayed six hours combing through the office. Police said they were after information about an article that was published in an extremist newspaper, which Ms Flige says her organisation had nothing to do with. Police have not responded to requests to clarify their motives.
If a poll run by one of the country’s leading television stations is any indication, many ordinary Russians consider Stalin a hero. The old despot is running fourth in a vote for the greatest Russian ever, ahead of Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and even Lenin.
Voting closes tomorrow and the race is so tight that Stalin could pull it off.
UPDATE (29 Dec.): Stalin finished third.
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