Who really was Stalin? What kind of role did he play in the history of the world? Who shot Jewish people in Eastern Europe? What did Stalin fight for? GT has asked Yuri Mukhin, professional publicist, historian, Editor in Chief of the Duel newspaper and author of about 40 books, including ìKatyn Detectiveî, ìAntirossiiskaya Podlostî and ìSud Nad Stalinimî to give his opinion.

Q: Your works are mainly about Soviet history and Stalin. What should Georgians know about him and his role in the history of the Soviet Union?

A: I believe that Georgians should know that a Russian who originated from Georgia created a golden hour not only for Russia but for the history of whole world. Beria was also around at that time and we cannot hide the fact that the golden hour in human history originated from Georgia. But this is not to the credit of Georgia, as I regard Georgia as the first country which betrayed the Soviet Union, so I cannot praise todayís Georgians.

I am afraid that today Georgia is no different from Russia, in that it knows its history only from Khrushchevís lies, which he told on the orders of the West. In the first half of the last century the citizens of the Soviet Union were facing danger and uncertainty. At a time of danger (if you understand this) people choose the most just and wise leader, win together and advance. Who was the leader when we, the people of the Soviet Union, became superhuman? Who led us and took us forward? Under whose leadership did we make the whole of fascist Europe bow to us and go into space? Did we invite American advisers before we did this?

Think about it and you will understand why the West has such hatred for Stalin. It is not Stalin who is a danger to the West but we Russians (meaning people from the former Soviet Union) when we become superhuman and achieve everything ourselves. Stalin is abused, but the domestic and foreign followers of Anti-Stalinism, are they not also abused now? Those people cannot be compared to Stalin and by lying about him they are depraving our ancestors and us.

Stalin was a real leader- someone who ran things himself. He did not just sign documents prepared by bureaucrats or even read their speeches. There are no similar leaders today, nor any leader similar to Stalin in the history of the world. You judge.

In the Second World War the Soviet Union led by Stalin in fact fought against the whole of Europe and destroyed 75 percent of the armed forces of Germans and its allies, (15 percent of American, and 10 percent of British). The Second World War destroyed a third of the treasure our ancestors inherited from Rurik. Despite this the Soviet Union abolished food rationing in 1947 ñ only two years after the war. France managed to do it in 1949 and England only at the beginning of the fifties. Then food was so expensive, even with a ration book, that it was almost impossible to buy.

After 5 years ration cards were abolished in the Soviet Union. Bread, meat and oil were twice cheaper than they were before abolishing them, sugar cost three times less. During these five years the USA increased the price of its bread by a third, in England and France the price of bread doubled. The price of meat increased by a quarter in the USA, by a third in England and in France it doubled. In 1952 not only the capital of the Soviet Union but provincial centres could receive TV broadcasts, something they could only dream of in Europe, even in Italy. No country had a faster rate of economic growth than the Soviet Union during Stalin's time and even for dozens of years after his murder. I worked for 22 years as a factory boss and I know very well what running things is. I managed 1,500 people personally and 6,000 indirectly. Stalin ruled 100 million people, and how effectively! This delights me ñ he was a real man!

If you want to be the sort of state the West dreams of, carry on being underlings and foolishly repeating that Stalin killed 100 million innocent people. But if you are human thinks about such a wonderful man. I am from Ukraine and would like to address you Georgians in Ukrainian poet Schevchenkoís words: "Slavnis Pradedov Velikis, Pravnuki Paganieî. We are in the same way Ukrainians.

Q: You are one of the parties to Stalinís grandson's Evgeni Jugashvili's lawsuit against Novaya Gazeta and Ekho Moskvi. Why did you agree to be a part of this case?

A: I do not want to be ìPagani Pravnukî

Q: What do you think about the fact that on 9 May NATO soldiers will march in Red Square instead of soldiers bearing Stalin's picture?

A: Todayís Russia, like other CIS countries, has no right to celebrate winning the Second World War. The Soviet Union did that. Today Hitlerís aim has been achieved ñ the Soviet Union has been dismantled and its various pieces are colonies of Germany. So it seems inappropriate for the heads of CIS countries to carry Stalin's portrait in procession. They should carry Hitler's, and Vlasovís (he fought for Hitler under todayís Russian flag), Gorbachevís, Yeltsinís and Shevardnadzeís. These people are the ones who won the most from the Soviet Union, they cannot touch Stalin with their dirty hands.

Q: Georgians do not know that one of your books is about the collaboration between Germans and Zionists. It is very difficult to believe this took place because everyone knows that Hitler tried to exterminate the Jewish people.

A: It is difficult to say anything about this in two words. People do not know history, only myths about history. They do not know that Zionist followers spent huge amounts of money for hundred of years but could not create a state of Israel in Palestine because Jewish people wanted to be musicians and singers, not workers in factories or fields. An agreement was made between Hitler and the Zionists under which Hitler took the responsibility to take Palestine from England and force European Jews to settle there. They then tried to provoke fear in European Jews by killing the Jewish people living in the Soviet Union because they were considered as ìproblematicî Jews, as they did not want to form Kibbutzes in Palestine but set up collective farms in the Soviet Union, did not want to create Israel in Palestine but establish a Jewish autonomous region in the Soviet Union, etcetera.

Local collaborators and Zionists shot Jewish people from the Soviet Union. Many do not know that the Zionists assured the local Jews that they were not taking them away to shoot them but to help them go abroad. The Germans brought a rabbi in to serve their interests and shot Jews in the village of Volchin in the Kamentski region of Brest in 1942. 9 Jews who lived in Kiev were shot at Babi Yar by Rabin. We should also note the fate of Vilniusí ghetto, led by Jewish racist Iakob Gensy. With his support the Germans shot 38,000 Jews living in Vilnius and many hundreds of Latvian Jews. Gensy sent Jewish people out one by one, telling them they would be taken into exile. When local Latvians understood what was going on and told the Jews to run the Jews themselves told them: "you will be the first to be shotî.

The destruction of the Vilnius ghetto was the apotheosis of Jewish racism. Iakob Gensy and Desler, the head of the Nazi Jewish police, held a mass shooting of Jews in Oshmian. The Jewish police killed Jews there, not the Germans or Latvians.

Throughout the war there was only one instance when European Jews opposed the Zionists. The residents of the Warsaw ghetto rebelled and killed famous Zionist Alfred Nossig and the head of the Jewish police.

Q: In your book Katyn Detective, published in 1995, you claim that Stalin did not agree to the shooting of Poles at Katyn. Where is the proof of this?

A: After issuing this book in 2005 I wrote Antirasiskaya Podlost, which consists of about 700 pages and about the same number of proven facts, all of which are sourced. Since 2005 more documentation has emerged supporting my case. In essence I can say that the Soviet Union had no reason to shoot the Polish people killed there in 1941. They were shot and buried in a field next to a pioneer camp, killed with German weapons with their hands tied behind their backs by German rope. There are seven documents in the so-called Closed Packet which state that the Soviet Politbureau participated in shooting the Poles, but these document have more than 50 spurious elements in them and there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The idea that the Polish officers were killed by the NKVD can only by asserted by those who do not know anything about this, and have no desire to know, and fraudsters.

Q: What kind of relations do you think Russians and Georgians will have in the future?

A: Russian and Georgian people will have bad relations, because these relations are not between people but Saakashvili and PutinÖ

The opinions expressed in this interview are the interviewee's own. GT has reprinted what was said without alteration.