Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, the grandson of Joseph Stalin, is suing an opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and a civil rights society Memorial for defamation of the Soviet dictator and blaming Poland of having masterminded the libel. 

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili says that an article published in Novaya Gazeta, in cooperation with Memorial, is a lie. The article claims that Stalin personally ordered the deaths of thousands of Soviet and Polish citizens in Katyn. 

 Stalin’s grandson, who was not present at the hearing in a Moscow court, is demanding 10 million ruble (23,000 euro) compensation for moral damage, claiming Stalin was not a “bloodthirsty man-eater” who committed crimes against his own nation. 

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili’s lawyer and historian Yury Mukhin said that for many people “Stalin is the symbol of an honest and fair leader”. He added that Novaya Gazeta and Memorial fabricated a story about the massacre in Katyn and that they act as “Poland’s fifth column.” 

Deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Andrey Lipsky said that the libel case against the newspaper may bring positive results because classified documents with Stalin’s personal signature, which bore witness to the dictator’s guilt, will probably be revealed. Thus, a true version of history would be vindicated. 

Novaya Gazeta is a liberal Russian newspaper known for being critical of Russian government policy. Between 2001 and 2009 four of its journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya, were murdered. Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that examines crimes of the Soviet regime and monitors human rights in post-Soviet states and Chechnya. Together Novaya Gazeta and Memorial plan to open a centre for the memory of the victims of Stalinism.