TBILISI, Georgia -- The grandson of Josef Stalin offered a gift on the 118th anniversary of the dictator's birth -- a book containing names and pictures of Stalin's foes.


In an interview broadcast on Georgian television Monday, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, a 59-year-old former Soviet army colonel, lashed out at journalists and historians who "denounce and deride'' Stalin.


"We have decided to start the 'black book' of those who slander Stalin, accompanied by their pictures, so that people see them,'' said Dzhugashvili, whose surname was Stalin's real name.


He heads an organization set up to improve Stalin's reputation, and claims it has up to 50,000 members throughout the former Soviet Union.


However, on Stalin's birthday Sunday, only about 200 people gathered to lay wreaths at his monument.