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Swamp Thing: Stalin Statue Emerges From The Deep, Forcing Town To Confront Its Past
RFE/RL ^ | August 24, 2018 | Mark Krutov, Robert Coalson

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 ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: russia; stalin


1 posted on 08/26/2018 11:33:44 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“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?


2 posted on 08/26/2018 11:39:05 AM PDT by Fungi
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To: Fungi

Honor his memory with his methods. Secretly dump the Stalinists in the deepest part of the pond, weighed down by their hero’s statue.


3 posted on 08/26/2018 11:45:47 AM PDT by JohnBovenmyer (Waiting for the tweets to hatch!)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
Thanks CondoleezzaProtege. So, some Stalinist thugs came by and took the pieces away? What are their FR nicks?

4 posted on 08/26/2018 12:08:47 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: JohnBovenmyer
They could probably sell it to Seattle to put up next to the Lenin statue.

Or, just give it to the numbnutts in Portland, OR.

5 posted on 08/26/2018 12:38:13 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Let’s bring back Hitler and FDR sycophants too. I think they all s*cked.


6 posted on 08/26/2018 12:43:40 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Get the front of the statue reasonably complete, then prop it up facing the road with nothing behind it.

Call it "Potemkin Stalin"

7 posted on 08/26/2018 12:45:41 PM PDT by ZOOKER (Until further notice the /s is implied...)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I say modernize the statue. Lop off the head, then replace it with a bust of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.


8 posted on 08/26/2018 1:19:52 PM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: ZOOKER

It looks more like a damp Ozymandias.


9 posted on 08/26/2018 2:42:58 PM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: JohnBovenmyer

Great idea.


10 posted on 08/26/2018 4:19:22 PM PDT by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

There is a Lenin statue that a local artist turned into Darth Vader


11 posted on 08/27/2018 3:26:23 AM PDT by Nateman (If the left is not screaming, you are doing it wrong.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
The group was headed by a local businessman named Sergei Stafeyev.

Oh, hell ya. Everyone knows Stalin supported local businessmen. It's who he was.

12 posted on 08/27/2018 5:32:10 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (All Democrats have to offer is violence, intolerance, divisiveness and hatred.)
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