Posted on 08/26/2018 11:33:44 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Earlier this month, local officials began repairs on a 200-year-old dam on the Kusa River by lowering the water level in the pond behind it. On August 2, local photographer Andrei Parfyonov and his family were walking along the muddy bank when they found themselves staring into the stern face of Josef Stalin.
"Think back to a time 60 years ago, when Stalin died and Nikita Khrushchev said we need to end the cult of personality," says Natalya Rostovtseva, director of the Kusa Historical Museum...Local residents pulled down the statue, broke it into pieces, and threw the chunks into the pond through holes cut in the ice.
"We at the museum had been hoping to find the pieces for a long time."
The following day, Rostovtseva, Mayor Valery Vasenyov, and an "improvised committee" of local dignitaries gathered around the concrete dictator to decide his fate.
That's when things got weird.
Over the weekend, a group of people representing the local branch of a pro-Kremlin, pro-Stalin public organization called 'Essence of the Age' swept in and carted the Stalin fragments away. The group was headed by a local businessman named Sergei Stafeyev.
Although Stafeyev denied his group "stole" the statue, he said he has no intention of returning it.
Stafeyev claimed a survey has already been conducted..."80 percent" of respondents want the statue returned to a place of honor.
"This is our history," he said. "Stalin is a figure who has been widely slandered. There are various opinions about his personality, but thanks to him, we won the war. Take the United States. No one there is lamenting and punishing themselves about the things their leaders did. Look at the Great Depression. How many people starved to death? No one is now saying it was 'genocide against their own people.'
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
“Members of a pro-Kremlin, pro-Stalin group called Essence of the Age later came and spirited the cleaned-up fragments away.” You mean it was stolen?
Honor his memory with his methods. Secretly dump the Stalinists in the deepest part of the pond, weighed down by their heros statue.
Thanks CondoleezzaProtege. So, some Stalinist thugs came by and took the pieces away? What are their FR nicks?
Or, just give it to the numbnutts in Portland, OR.
Let’s bring back Hitler and FDR sycophants too. I think they all s*cked.
Call it "Potemkin Stalin"
I say modernize the statue. Lop off the head, then replace it with a bust of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It looks more like a damp Ozymandias.
Great idea.
There is a Lenin statue that a local artist turned into Darth Vader
Oh, hell ya. Everyone knows Stalin supported local businessmen. It's who he was.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.