Stalin committed no crimes!

[Larry1]

So says Dr. Grover Furr, professor at Montclair State University, in response to a question about the murders Stalin ordered:

What you said is bullshit; it's wrong; its a lie...  I have spent many years researching this and similar questions and I have yet to find one crime,  Yet to find one crime that Stalin committed!

You can watch the exchange on video here:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/your-tax-dollars-at-work-prof-says-stalin-did-not-kill-millions-of-people-thats-the-big-lie/article/2513339#.UKKK5YX2FNh

Perhaps his many years of research did not include reading about Krushchev's "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin at the 20th Party Congress in 1956.

[Shadow]

It is without a doubt that most people in the world, including Russia believe Stalin to have committed crimes.
The problem is always in where the definition of a crime is made. The acting president of a country has by his position the right to give orders that involve violence against civilians. That goes not just for Stalin, but for every head of State of every country in the world.
These orders are not a crime, as long as they are given within function. However they may be judged as crime by other states or independent tribunals after the fact based on happenings.

Apart from direct orders, a head of State has responsibility for a long line of command. In many modern trials, orders executed within this line of command are put as responsibility of crime for the head of State. However being responsible for a crime is not the same as committing one.

In short, what is said may actually be correct if seen in the perspective of laws from independent states.

Which does not make Stalin any less brutal or paranoid.

[jone]

Ah, but the death of one is a tradgedy.  The death of millions - a statistic.  - Stalin