Historians assess prospects of Nalchik resident's demands to stop Stalin glorification

In modern Russian realities, any initiatives demanding to stop Stalinism rehabilitation are useless and can lead to repressions against authors of such demands, Pavel Polyan has suggested in his comment on the appeal of Oleg Kelemetov, a Nalchik resident, to parliaments of North-Caucasian republics. In his turn, Nikita Sokolov believes that such initiatives are important, and if the recipients ignore them, republics' residents will surely notice them.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that earlier this February, Oleg Kelemetov turned to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a demand to check the decisions made by Stalin and other members of the USSR State Defence Committee for law violations. He has emphasized that the reason for deporting Caucasian nations in 1944 was in their ethnicity, while the USSR Constitution had guaranteed equality. This May, Kelemetov, on behalf of a group of residents of Northern Caucasus, sent his appeals to the parliaments of Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ingushetia and Kalmykia, and North-Caucasian republics, calling for a legislative ban on the glorification of Stalin and others involved in mass deportations during the Great Patriotic War (WW II), as well as on erecting monuments to them.

As a result of adoption of the law on rehabilitation, families of the repressed people received payments, but what is more important for them is compensation for moral harm, Kelemetov has stressed.

Pavel Polyan, a historian, is sure that such initiatives cannot lead to stopping Stalinism rehabilitation. In his opinion, the authors of the appeal may face problems.

Nikita Sokolov, another historian, on the contrary, believes that such initiatives are useful. "Any initiatives in this regard are beneficial. Without de-Stalinization, Russia will never have a modern society," he has stated, adding that parliaments will pay no attention to these appeals.