Russian notebooks with Stalin on cover cause stir

[April 04, 2012]  MOSCOW (AP) -- School notebooks with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on the cover are causing controversy in Russia.

One of Moscow's largest bookshop said it is running out of the notebooks because they are so popular -- but human rights activists have slammed the notebooks as promoting Stalin as a hero to children.

Russia's education minister says while he disapproves of the notebooks, there is no legal way to stop stores from selling them.

Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1953, is a controversial figure in Russia today. Although he was responsible for the deaths of millions of his own citizens, Stalin is still highly regarded for having led Russia to victory in World War II and overseeing its rise as an industrial and military superpower.

[Associated Press]

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