Interfax: Putin calls for showing respect for all periods of national history

MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is opposed to the attempts to agitate or split society over attitude to monuments to certain historical figures.

“We should respect every period in our history, and it is better not to agitate or blow our minds with certain premature actions that may split our society,” Putin said.

He said he expected “city authorities to bear that in mind while considering the construction or deconstruction of monuments but it was their right to decide which monuments to erect when and where.”

“This is a prerogative of the Moscow authorities, including deputies of the Moscow City Duma,” Putin answered a question about the alleged plans to restore monuments to Soviet statesmen, including Joseph Stalin and Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Square.

The president compared Joseph Stalin with English revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell.

“What is the big difference between Cromwell and Stalin? Can you tell me? There is none. From the point of view of our liberal political establishment, he is also a bloody dictator and a very cunning man, by the way. The part he played in the UK is rather controversial. But his monument still stands. No one is destroying it,” Putin said.

A source in the Moscow city culture department told Interfax on Thursday that memorial plaques dedicated to former Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Konstantin Chernenko would be unveiled in the city.

“The decisions regarding N. Khrushchev and K. Chernenko were made in 2011 at the culture department’s commemoration commission,” the department representative said.

He said that a possibility of unveiling a monument to Joseph Stalin was not discussed at the department.

“No one has made a proposal regarding Stalin and the commission has not considered this possibility,” the department press service said.

Meanwhile, Moscow city culture department head Sergei Kapkov said at a ceremony of unveiling of the Leonid Brezhnev memorial plaque that the department planned to commemorate all Soviet leaders.

“We have decided to restore all plaques commemorating Soviet leaders in the city of Moscow, which have been removed or have never been installed, after we restore Leonid Brezhnev’s plaque,” the department head said.

[featured images are file photos]