On last Monday, hundreds of admirers of the former Soviet leader lined up in Moscow’s Red Square to lay wreaths at his grave, in honor of the 130th anniversary of his birth.
Ivan Melnikov of Russia’s Communist Party, the deputy parliament speaker, wrote on his party’s website, “We would very much like for any discussion of the mistakes of the Stalin epoch to be silenced today, so that people can reflect on Stalin’s personality as a creator, a thinker and a patriot.”

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