Moscow goes ahead with plan for Stalin posters

Mar 2, 2010, 16:12 GMT

Moscow - Moscow intends to stick to its plan to unveil large street posters of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has part of plans to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of World War Two, despite mounting criticism, the city's mayor said Tuesday.

'It is not acceptable to wipe the name of Stalin out of the history of the victory over fascism,' Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov told the interfax news agency.

Human rights activists have expressed outrage over the display of a Stalin's portrait at the planned victory parade in the Russian capital on May 9, blaming him for millions of deaths within the former Soviet Union.

'I am not an admirer of Stalin - but of objective history,' Luzhkov said, adding that only ten of the 2000 banners to be put up for the victory celebrations from the April 1 featured Stalin.

While veteran associations welcomed the announcement, critics such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev said victory in the Second World War was not due to Stalin, but to the population.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Helsinki Group, a Moscow-based human rights group, called the banners showing Stalin 'a personal insult'.

Her father had been killed in the war on orders by Stalin.

Western diplomats worry international heads of states and government could cancel their participation in the victory celebrations. However, Germany's Angela Merkel is still due to attend.

Stalin still divides Russian society 57 years after his death. Historians argue that millions of people were killed under Stalin's rule.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have denounced communist rule, whereas some communists still regard Stalin as solely responsible for the victory over fascism.