By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News, Moscow
**Joseph Stalin’s grandson has launched a court action claiming a liberal Russian newspaper has defamed the former Soviet dictator.**Yevgeny Dzhugashvili says an article claiming Stalin personally ordered the deaths of Soviet citizens is a lie.
A Moscow court has agreed to hear the case against the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
The paper published a piece referring to declassified death warrants which it says bore Stalin’s personal signature.
Mr Dzhugashvili - who was not at the court as the case was brought on Thursday - says that is a lie, and that Stalin never directly ordered the deaths of anyone.
It is the latest bizarre twist in what many see as a Kremlin-backed campaign to rehabilitate Stalin’s reputation.
Respected and feared
A small crowd of Stalin supporters gathered outside Moscow’s Basmmani courthouse, where lawyers for Mr Dzhugashvili presented the case.
“Under Stalin our country was respected,” said one elderly supporter. “Now we are beggars. In those days we were respected and feared by others.”
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Such views are far from unusual in Russia, which is why this case is so important.
Genry Reznik, for the defence, said: "If the court finds for plaintiff, it will be a massive bomb. We should put an end to these discussions about the murderous dictator - he should be condemned.
“We should have our own Nuremberg, and not only for Stalin - for his whole regime.”
The Kremlin has professed no opinion about the case. But in other ways Russia’s leadership has been quietly moving to rehabilitate the great dictator.
Last month a brass plaque praising Stalin suddenly reappeared in a Moscow metro station.
And last year a history textbook for Russian schoolchildren was published which referred to Stalin as an “effective manager” who led Russia to victory in World War II - not a brutal dictator responsible for sending millions to their deaths.
Last year in an online competition to find the greatest Russian ever, Stalin came third - even though he was not actually Russian, but Georgian.