Akel lashes out at ‘monstrous’ Lenin documentary

By Martin Hellicar

LEFT-WING Akel yesterday lashed out at state television channel CyBC2 for its “monstrous” decision to screen an uncomplimentary BBC documentary about Lenin.

The main opposition party rushed to the defence of the father of the October 1917 Russian revolution.

“CyBC2’s decision to screen at 23.30 on July 28 a British BBC documentary on the life of Lenin that was in bad taste and sycophantic was a provocation for the feelings of a significant section of the Cypriot public, ” Akel stated in an announcement.

The BBC documentary suggested Lenin suffered violent mood swings and actually castigated his own secret police for not being ruthless enough in stamping out all opposition to his revolution.

Akel said the documentary was a pack of lies. “Among his other abberations, the deluded director and producer presented the great Lenin as a deranged womaniser, who, in moments of crisis, was subject to violent outbursts of authoritarianism,” Akel complained.

“CyBC2’s blunder in screening such a monstrous documentary constitutes an insult and slur to the name of the greatest revolutionary of all time,” the communist party stated.

Objective historians recognised Lenin as one of the greatest figures of the century, Akel insisted.

CyBC was guilty of “twisting historical truth” and should watch its step in the future, the party concluded.

Akel general secretary Demetris Christofias last month wrote an open letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin calling on him to abandon moves to remove Lenin’s mausoleum from Moscow’s Red Square.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.