Has Putin said this?...
Historical amnesia
Putin heralds teachers' manual glorifying Stalin as great leader
Calgary Herald
Monday, December 03, 2007
It's generally best for historical figures who are vilified by the evidence of history to stay that way.
There is usually good reason for their infamy and to rehabilitate them is to forget the painful lessons their brutality taught the world in the first place. Unfortunately, such arguments cut no ice in the provocative and fervidly nationalist Russia of President Vladimir Putin.
Long known for his confrontational stance on foreign relations, authoritarian instincts and nostalgia for Soviet power, Putin took a dangerous step down the road of historical amnesia recently when he began promoting a new manual for Russian high school teachers that glorifies the murderous Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as a great leader who, while cruel, modernized Russia and transformed it into a world power.