Communists have gathered at the Kremlin wall in Moscow to lay flowers on Stalin's grave. Fifty-five years have passed since the death of the Soviet leader. The head of the Communist party Gennady Zyuganov was there to lay flowers and to pay his respects.

Zyuganov referred to him as a great politician and says it was Stalin who led the Soviet Union to victory in the war against Nazi Germany.

“During the first ten years of his rule Stalin, together with the nation, managed to build 9,000 highly modernised plants. By the tragic year of 1941 we were equipped with up-to-date weapons to fight the Nazis. It took Europe almost 50 years to reach  the level of industrial and scientific development which our nation reached in just ten years. Stalin managed to keep us unified as a nation and allowed noone to break it into pieces,” he said.

However, not everybody celebrates Stalin's personality on the anniversary of his death. Words condemning his legacy were heard from various public figures.

The leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, says none of Stalin's achievements can make up for the damage his policies did to the nation.