Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, Stalin's Grandson, Sues Newspaper Over Defamation

BBC NEWS :

Joseph Stalin's grandson has launched a court action claiming a liberal Russian newspaper has defamed the former Soviet dictator.

Read the whole story: BBC NEWS

Comments

[winningticket]

I guess Pol Pot's kids will sue for defamation next.

[MosheDayanHero]

Lenin specifically warned not to let Stalin assume power.
It is extremely unfortunate for Soviet people that wily Georgian managed it anyway.
The gulags were reality. So were mass arrests and show trials.

The miraculously rapid building of industry and infrastructure under Stalin is also reality.
So is the fact that under Stalin's leadership USSR saved the world, literally, in WW2.
Regardless of the various WW2 trivia this is beyond dispute.
For this Stalin deserves recognition and gratitude of the world.

But overall, he was a paranoid mo.nster.

[JackHandsomeTheBrilliant]

Yes, Lenin seemed to have a different kind of a deathbed conversion, but alas, it was too late. Its a shame when you think about it. That the battle of Lenin's succession had been between Stalin and Trotsky and that Trotsky was seen as the dangerous megalomaniac as opposed to Stalin's boring office worker persona. Tragic irony in that. Would have been interesting to see how things could have transpired under Trotsky.

[JNarragansett]

The grandson is right, Stalin never killed anyone because that would be a tragedy. Instead he created statistics.

[Professorofdesire]

Imagine that....someone having the nerver to defame the memory of Josef Stalin. Is there enough money in the world to compensate for that?

[taddles]

Good luck with that, not sure you can defame the worst mass murdered in the history of the world.

[GrahamInCanada]

It is a mysterious thing but when I read this article about Stalin who was from Georgia, in my head I picked up the vibe of an old southern gentleman, in confederate finery, slapping a yank in the face with a white glove and proclaiming, "Sir, when you insult my grand daddy, you insult me. I'll see you at dawn."

I mean, what is the basis of this case in libel law? How does the grandson have standing?

Because, internationally, it has so far been advanced very successfully in many jurisdictions that if I libel you anywhere in the world, you can sue in any jurisdiction with internet access, although the absurd limits of this proposal are beginning to seep into the minds of even the most neanderthal legal minds.

Does this mean that if I insult my neighbor's long dead ancestor he or she can sue me for libel in Russian courts?

[martin2]

Obviously Stalin did not do the deed all alone, let's add the names of all
his fellow murderers.

[KarateKid]

Stalin is from Georgia. You'd think he'd be persona non grata in Russia, given recent events.

But, denial is very common for those who can't face facts. We have more than a few of them in our country, don't we? They're called conservatives.

[Professorofdesire]

That's another thing that he and Newt Gingrich have in common.

[proudloudlib]

#2 What's next? Renaming St. Petersburg AGAIN?

[Khirad]

That part about the statue was a tad disturbing. Would love to see the context of that (like did they try to pass it off as a historical reminder?).

[proudloudlib]

What's next? Hitler's relatives suing?

[KataVideo]

how do you defame a mass-murderer?

[Bitsko]

By understating how many kulaks he offed?

[MosheDayanHero]

Offing real kulaks wasn't such a bad thing, on the whole.

[1dogs2]

"And last year a history textbook for Russian schoolchildren was published which referred to Stalin as an "effective manager" who led Russia to victory in World War II - not, as has been widely claimed, a brutal dictator responsible for sending millions to their deaths."

Oh, dear. History is so complicated. When there are Russian textbooks for children that report that Stalin BOTH led Russia to victory in WWII AND was a brutal dictator responsible for millions of Russian deaths, Russians will perhaps come to terms with their own history. But the problem is hardly uniquely Russian. How long did it take the Japanese to teach their children that Japan was an aggressor in WWII? And in southern US history classes, children are STILL being taught that the Civil War was a war of aggression by the North against the South.

[Spencaa]

I don't think Russia will ever come to terms with their past. They still blame Poland for the Second World War.

[1dogs2]

Education is a wonderfully liberating thing, but you may be right.

[KIVPossum]

Sorry, southern history classes didn't teach what you suggest in the 50s when I was in southern schools. Try again to promote your bigotry of the south in another way.

[Ghost803]

I was in a southern school(Georgia) less than a decade ago. The history teachers did just what the original poster claims they do.

[1dogs2]

Sorry, but I taught in several universities in Georgia in the '70s, and that's what my southern educated colleagues told they had been taught. And sorry again, but I have no bigotry regarding the south, having been married to a southerner for decades and having lived in the south for years.

[MajorKong]

Odd.

We didn't have "Northern History" classes where I went to school. We had "American History".

[Grada3784]

Stalin was just rightsizing the Soviet Union. We've had corporations doing that here since the days of Reagan.

Stalin was just a tad wee bit more brutal than American HR.

[Fireslayer]

Papa Joe must have loved his family a lot to pull this much wool over the grandsons eyes.

I feel sorry for anyone that sheltered or historically challenged.

[NorthSide]

Stalin actually had most of his family and in-laws shot, or they were driven to suicide and alcoholism. The plaintiff in this case is lucky enough of them survived to give him birth.