Via Michael J. Totten:


Independent - Stalin died 50 years ago, but his legacy lives on -

Not only are there Stalinists in power today; there are apologists for them here in Britain


Another terrific item on the mind-boggling continuing pass given to the Stalinists among us.

Fifty years ago today, a grey old man lay on a sofa, his lips turning black. In his daughter's words, "he was suffering slow strangulation" after a brain haemorrhage, yet he was so despised by the people around him that he was allowed to lie dying for 10 hours before a doctor was called. Suddenly, she continues, "he lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something up above and bringing down a curse on all. The gesture was incomprehensible and full of menace". Joseph Stalin died as he lived: paranoid, full of hatred and cursing the world.


Still we do not take Stalin's crimes seriously in this country. While Le Monde publishes a pull-out supplement and the anniversary features on the front pages of most Eastern European papers, here there is a distracted silence save for a BBC documentary. Or, to give another, trivial but revealing example: Gordon Brown's former spin doctor, Charlie Whelan, used to keep the collected writings of Stalin prominently on his bookshelf, "for a laugh". Obviously Whelan is far from being a Stalinist; but can you imagine if, say, Amanda Platell, William Hague's spin-doctor, had kept Mein Kampf prominently on display in her office?[...]