Russian schools to keep exercise books with portrait of Joseph Stalin Yes, Stalin was a historical and state figure, but he was a criminal, he killed many people. And if you are going to print such exercise books then you need to write 'Murderer' in big letters on them. Mr Volkov compared the publication to printing a pad with "Hitler's swastika" on the cover. The publisher, Alt, has refused to withdraw from sale the controversial exercise books, which are sold in a series that includes Catherine the Great and composer Sergei Rakhmaninov. It said that an objective biography of Stalin on the final pages of the notepad explains that hundreds of thousands of people were shot during his Great Terror in the 1930s. However, Nikolai Svanidze, another member of the Public Chamber, said that was no excuse. "When a child sees this sumptuous cover with a handsome mustachioed Stalin, then [the latter] is already a hero," he said. In educational terms, this is just total depravity.