Press Release, 20.11.2023

Photo: Monument to Joseph Stalin in Velikiye Luki / Photo from open sources

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov region once again found no grounds for taking measures of prosecutorial response in connection with the unauthorised installation of a monument to Joseph Stalin in Velikiye Luki, the Pskov region, and reported that documents for the approval of the monument were being prepared to be submitted to the City Duma. The monument was opened on 15 August, 2023.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov region continues to call the eight-meter monument a “small architectural form”. On the second attempt, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reluctantly admits that the “Regulations on the Procedure for Installing Monuments, Memorial Signs and Memorial Plaques” approved by the Velikiye Luki City Duma, were nevertheless violated, since the installation of the monument was not agreed upon.

At the same time, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reports that a certain initiative group of citizens, with the support of the Mikron plant (the monument was installed on the territory on the plant), is already preparing documents for the commission under the Velikiye Luki administration to perpetuate the memory of outstanding historical events that occurred in the city, as well as personalities.

It should be noted that Artur Gaiduk, an MP of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko, has already twice addressed the Public Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov with a demand to take measures of prosecutorial response in connection with the illegal installation of a monument to Joseph Stalin in Velikiye Luki. Both appeals were forwarded by the Public Prosecutor General’s Office to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov Region.

In response to the first appeal from Arthur Gaiduk, the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office wrote that since the monument to Stalin was located in private territory – in front of the entrance of the Mikron plant, it meant that no permits or approvals were necessary, since the owners of “small architectural forms” are not required by law to coordinate such installations with local authorities.

Boris Vishnevsky, an MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg from Yabloko, also contacted the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov region. The regional Public Prosecutor’s Office sent a response to Vishnevsky that exactly copied the response to deputy Arthur Gaiduk.

When considering both appeals, the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not comment in any way on Artur Gaiduk’s arguments about the obvious violation of the decrees adopted in the 1990s and still currently in force: on additional measures to restore justice for victims of repressions that took place in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s, on the recognition of repressive acts against peoples subjected to forced relocation illegal and criminal, on the restoration of the rights of all victims of political repression of the 1920s – 1950s, on the rehabilitation of repressed peoples, and on the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions. “Assessment of  the personality of Joseph Stalin and the results of his leadership of the country is out of the competence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the second response from the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office ran.

It is clear from both answers of the Public Prosecutor’s Office that no measures of prosecutorial response will be taken in connection with the installation in Velikiye Luki of a monument to the head of state, who was personally responsible for political repressions against millions of people and who personally approved the execution lists. The illegal installation of the monument was de facto approved by the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office.

It should be noted that 61,588 people were repressed in the territory of the present Pskov region, in the period when Stalin was in power from 1918 to 1953, and 45,498 people were rehabilitated during the entire period of rehabilitation, and 8,205 residents of the region, including residents of Velikiye Luki, were sentenced to death.