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Mike Carter, The Observer, 2009

A permanent exile in Siberia for Stalin, the man who sent millions here?

By The Siberian Times reporter

17 February 2014

Communists want Soviet dictator immortalised forever in stone.

'Currently, the memory of Stalin in Achinsk is not immortalised,' said Vladimir Sedov, a deputy for the local Communist party. Picture of Stalin during his first 1903 exile in Irkutsk region courtesy sibnarod.com

Most statues for Josef Stalin have been torn down but now Russian Communists want to erect a new monument where he was exiled before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The aim is to build the controversial memorial in Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk region, by next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on May 9.

Stalin is reputed to have begun his trademark pipe-smoking habit in Achinsk during his two-month exile in the city before returning to Petrodgrad - now St Petersburg - in March 1917 to join the unrest following the February revolution and the overthrow Tsar Nicholas II.

Seven years later Stalin replaced Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union, and is widely portrayed as one of the most notorious dictators in history. Millions were sent into Siberian exile, to Gulag labour camps, condemning them to death or long years separated from loves ones.

'Currently, the memory of Stalin in Achinsk is not immortalised,' said Vladimir Sedov, a deputy for the local Communist party. There is an exhibition at a local museum dedicated to him, but there is no monument. This is bad because students do not know who led the country during the war and who Stalin was. This is wrong'.

Construction will go ahead if locals support the plans. A former museum dedicated to Stalin in Achinsk was closed in the 1950s when the new Soviet leadership denounced his 'cult of personality'.

Stalin retains respect among some Russians for his leadership of the country during the Second World War. Some Russian authorities dispute Western claims that he was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people in the Soviet Union.

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Nikita Khrushchev did everything to preserve the memory of Lenin while undoing Stalin-ism.
You only need to watch how Stalin treated Communists to know the truth.
'Joseph Stalin had an ax, gave Leon Trotsky 40 wacks'.

Jerry Sexton, Butte USA

22/09/2017 22:47

There's a very good reason why Stalin's grave in Red Square has one empty spot on his left and another on his right. None of the other luminaries there like Yuri Gagarin want to spin in their graves for an infinity of years. I saw it with my own eyes, and then I understood how deeply most Russians still both fear and hate him even unto today.

Paul W., Highlands Ranch, CO

29/10/2016 01:45

My great granddad was one of the magistrates whose argument meant stalin got a lenient sentence in Siberia, many wanted him executed. Then what did the "great man" do in repayment he sent my mum a toddler with my gran & aunty to a Siberian slave farm while my granddad from Austria was fighting the Nazis, as Stalin collaborated with Hitler originally in 1939 to invade Poland, they only survived as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union& Stalin was forced to work with the allies. Not only that, Holodomor in Ukraine was the enforced starvation of around 7million in the 1930s& millions did not die industrialising in any other country except the USSR& Mao's China. Those from camps who carried out the mass murder should be on trial along with SS commandants& certain Barons in the west who knowingly invested in death camp companies like IG farben. Russia is a great country without Stalin

John skorupsky mason, nottingham

29/07/2014 08:39

Why are you cowardly hide yourself behind “The Local, Kras”? Don't you have a name? The article was correct! Iwan Wolkow also is right! If you would have lost your grandfather and your grandmother by Stalin and his helpers, you would not defend him, right? Stalin was one of the greatest mass murderer ever! Monuments for such a mass murderer are damaging the reputation of modern Russia enormously!

Pawel Smirnow, Warsaw, Poland

13/03/2014 02:18

Iwan Wolkov, please calm down. This is neither a meeting here nor a kind of talk show.
The point was about said in the article about "deaths of tens of millions of people in the Soviet Union", which is simply not truth. :)

The local, Kras

26/02/2014 20:05

Stalin is beside Hitler one of the greatest war criminals the world has ever seen! He and his helpers are guilty for the deaths of millions of innocent people during the time from 1924 to 1953! The only difference to Hitler is that Stalin was on the winning side after the second world war. There is a tragic fact that leaders of war winning countries never will be prosecuted for their crimes! Russia has finally to analyze the dark side of Soviet time in a serous way! This is the only way to improve its reputation.

Iwan Wolkow, Stockholm, Sweden

26/02/2014 09:22

----Stalin is best forgotten,----
One can't erase this very important part of Russian history. Stalin and his era is best researched. Otherwise people will start believing into the cold war propaganda cliches such as the death of "tens of millions", which is literally not correct.

The local, Kras

17/02/2014 20:47

-----Some Russian authorities dispute Western claims that he was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people in the Soviet Union.-----

How come this old anti-Soviet propaganda cliche shows up once again? Would you provide a serious source where they state about "deaths of tens of millions of people in the Soviet Union"? There were millions who came through Gulag camps within nearly 30 years of Stalin's ruling and hundreds of thousands who died or were killed. Yes, not all of them were criminals, Nazi collaborators etc. But there is a big difference between millions and "tens of millions". If it was about money you would feel it right away. ;)

The local, Kras

17/02/2014 19:52

"A former museum dedicated to Stalin was closed in the 1950s" Well that says it all. Time to move on ok. Certainlly ,positively either way Stalin won't be offended. There are russians who disliked this person immensely and there are russians who admired this person greatly. Both contrasting groups believe their own ideologies on the now deceased controversial former russian leader. Stalin is best forgotten, because what is most important, -------a new modern exciting united Russia ,whose people who are proud to be called RUSSIAN. Patrick .

Patrick Travers, Perth Australia

17/02/2014 19:12