© Sputnik / Eugene Odinokov
Attempts to downplay the repressions of the Stalin era must be fought relentlessly, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said, three decades after his decree to rehabilitate victims of Joseph Stalin's totalitarian regime.
The order was signed in the final years of perestroika - a policy aimed at transforming the Soviet totalitarian system into a liberal market economy - which ended 16 months later, along with the country itself.
Still, the first (and only) Soviet president, Gorbachev, now 89, told TASS news agency that
the achievements of perestroika must be protected from continuous attempts to find justification for the crimes of Stalinism and efforts to "portray criminals as 'efficient managers.'"In modern Russia, the description of Joseph Stalin as an "efficient manager" has popped up from time to time since the early 2000s in various discussions online and offline.
Calling that approach "unacceptable," Gorbachev urged the Russian leaders of today to "take a firm stance" against such attempts, so no one may justify political repression by saying "that was required at that time."
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