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Russian publisher refuses to withdraw Stalin notebook from schools

Officials criticise school notebook featuring former dictator on cover as part of publisher's series of 20 'Great Russians'
Miriam Elder in Moscow theguardian.com, Tuesday 3 April 2012 13.39 BST

Moscow pupils take a break on a toppled statue of Stalin in 1991. Liberals have been fighting against creeping 're-Stalinisation', such as the school notebook featuring the former dictator on its cover. Photograph: Dieter Endlicher/Associated Press

A Russian publisher has refused to withdraw a notebook for schoolchildren featuring the former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on its cover. Members of Russia's Public Chamber, a government oversight committee, and Moscow city officials have criticised the notebook, which features Stalin in military regalia. "Whatever you think of this person, no one can deny the fact that a lot of people were killed under Stalin. If his face appears on a school notebook, this, in my opinion, is akin to Hitler's swastika," said Sergei Volkov, a member of the Public Chamber.

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The Stalin notebook. Photograph: alt-shop.biz The notebook is part of a series of 20 "Great Russians" released by the Alt publishing house. Other notebooks feature Ivan the Terrible, Vladimir Lenin and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. "Stalin is a criminal, a bloody tyrant," Viktor Kruglyakov, a member of the Moscow Duma's education and youth committee, told NTV television. "If these notebooks end up in schools, kids who don't yet know history can think: 'You can kill a lot of people, but still be great'. It's very dangerous." The publishers have defended the product as useful, popular and commercially successful. "The Public Chamber is not a legislative body and it expresses the personal opinion of its representatives," Artyom Bilan, Alt's art director, told RIA Novosti news agency. "Their opinion is in complete contrast with the majority of Russian citizens." He cited the example of a nationwide television contest held four years ago, modelled on the BBC's "Great Britons", that saw Stalin place third in a vote of Russia's greatest historical figures behind medieval warrior prince Alexander Nevsky and Tsar Nicholas II's prime minister, Pyotr Stolypin. Liberal figures have been fighting against creeping "re-Stalinisation" in Russia. Three years ago, a refurbished Moscow metro station was opened featuring a large quote from the dictator. Last summer, members of the Communist party unveiled a bust of Stalin in the central Russian city of Penza. Sign up for the Guardian Today
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