Ingushetia bans Stalin

A bill banning the perpetuation of the memory of Stalin cleared its first reading in Ingushetia’s legislative assembly on February 22, one day before the 73rd anniversary of the mass deportation of the Ingush ordered by the soviet leader.

Chairman of the assembly Zelimkhan Yevloyev said the bill outlawed naming streets, villages and towns after Stalin, justifying and praising him publicly, as well as dedicating monuments and using images of him in public buildings.

“It’s blasphemous to heroize and dedicate monuments to someone who deported scores of peoples, to a tyrant who oversaw the killing and imprisonment of dozens of thousands of members of intelligentsia and military,” said a member of the legislative body Maryam Amriyeva.

Meanwhile, in the Georgian town of Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, he is still worshipped and adored, seen by many almost as a godlike figure.  Read a JAMnews report on Georgia’s Stalin fans here