There Is Hope

"Medvedev: Soviet-Era Terror Cannot Be Justified," NYTimes (Oct. 30, 2009):

In a blog-posted video marking a day set aside in 1991 to commemorate victims of Soviet political repression, Medvedev suggested young Russians are getting a lopsided picture of their country's past -- learning plenty about its proud moments but little about the bloodbath that reached its peak under Josef Stalin in the Great Terror of the late 1930s.

''Let's just think about: Millions of people died as a result of terror and false accusations -- millions,'' a somber-faced Medvedev said. ''They were deprived of all rights, even the right to a decent human burial, and for long years their names were simply crossed out of history.

''And yet today it is still possible to hear that these many victims were justified by some higher state goal,'' he said.

[snip, snip]

Medvedev said Oct. 30 is a day to remember ''millions of maimed destinies: people shot without trial or investigation, people sent to the camps and into exile, deprived of civil rights.''

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