Won't they go crazy from lies?

Executioners and victims should, according to Smolny, be immortalized together

Less than three months later, the St. Petersburg government responded to the appeal of the public, demanding to cancel the decree of April 23, 2010 on the installation of a memorial plaque to the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU in 1970-1983 ...

Less than three months later, the St. Petersburg government responded to an appeal from the public demanding that the decree of April 23, 2010 on the installation of a memorial plaque to Grigory Romanov, the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU in 1970-1983, be canceled. And responded with a mocking refusal.

Oleg Basilashvili, Boris Strugatsky, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Alexei German, Svetlana Karmalita, Yuri Schmidt, Yuri Shevchuk, Nina Katerli, Boris Firsov, Samuel Lurie, Alexander Kushner, Yakov Gordin, Konstantin Azadovsky and many other figures of culture and science. The St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko, the Writers' Union of St. Petersburg, human rights activists, scientists, engineers, and artists protested - those who well remembered the obscurant days of Romanov's rule and experienced them for themselves. However, Smolny refused to cancel his decision.

The response, signed by Vice-Governor Lyudmila Kostkina, states that the initiative to perpetuate the memory of Romanov was made by "a significant part of the St. Petersburg public, including heads of industrial enterprises." That, "despite the controversy in assessing the personality of Romanov, many state institutions and public organizations spoke out in support of the decision to install a memorial plaque." That St. Petersburg is a tolerant city, in connection with which the relevant structures, including the Council for Memorial Plaques, “try not to evaluate historical personalities exclusively in black or white”. And that "such a wide range of opinions cannot be ignored." That is why "in the toponymy of St. Petersburg there will be a memorial plaque to Grigory Romanov and a square named after Georgy Tovstonogov in parallel."

“I remember Mikhail Bulgakov, who wrote how he was met by a secretary who was numb with lies,” People’s Artist Oleg Basilashvili reacted to Smolny’s answer. - And here the same thing: they just lie to us! ... Romanov did everything to destroy the brightest, most talented, most interesting artists, writers, poets, theater figures. He could not destroy them physically, and therefore he destroyed them morally. Well, how can you compare Tovstonogov and Romanov? One name is a lie, hypocrisy, stupidity, illiteracy. The other is talent, genius, openness, freedom…”

“Tolerance should not be confused with indifference to the crimes of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist regimes,” says writer Nina Caterly. “Then it’s worth erecting monuments to informers, and in contrast, naming public gardens after those who were imprisoned on their denunciations.”