The case of the disappearance of Stalin's statue in a Russian city
The case of the disappearance of Stalin's statue in a Russian city
KUSA, Russia. One day, this summer, officials gathered around a mud-covered bust of Joseph Stalin that had emerged after six decades of languishing in a lake here. They made plans to move it to the history museum in this small town on the edge of Siberia.
But a day later, the former Soviet dictator had left.
Stanislav Stafeyev, a member of a group that dreams of restoring the Soviet Union, dragged the concrete bust and two other fragments into his yard with his own plan: resuscitate the statue, which was discarded. after the death of Stalin And the complaint at the end of the fifties. The authorities have demanded that Mr. Stafeyev deliver the pieces, but he has refused, according to Mr. Stafeyev and city officials.
Stanislav Stafeyev took the bust and two other fragments to his patio with a plan to resurrect the statue.
Photo:
Oksana Yushko for The Wall Street Journal
Wherever Stalin ends, his reappearance in this city of some 17,000 people has provoked an anxious, and largely unwanted, debate about his place in The past and the present of Russia., reflecting a national malaise and preference for ambiguity.
Historians say that millions of Soviet citizens were executed, died in labor camps or died of starvation under Stalin. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the dictator's "excessive demonization" is used to attack Russia. Mr. Putin has done the victory in the second world war, directed by Stalin, a centerpiece of state propaganda. Stalin's popularity increased when the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014 and confronted the West, with a survey conducted in March by the Levada-Center pollster that showed that 40% of respondents viewed it positively and only the 12% negative.
That has emboldened people like Mr. Stafeyev, who says that Stalin has been defamed as part of a campaign, sown by the West, to undermine the Soviet Union and Russia.
"Several generations have been educated in myths," as exaggerated estimates of the number of victims, said Mr. Stafeyev, 44.
The statue in Kusa was demolished after Stalin was denounced by his successor in 1956, said Natalya Rostovtseva, director of the local history museum.
Photo:
Oksana Yushko for The Wall Street Journal
The statue in Kusa was in a park by the lake until it was knocked down one winter night after Stalin was denounced by his successor in 1956, said Natalya Rostovtseva, director of the local history museum, who said that Stalin's statues were knocked down in cities and towns across Russia. It was probably pulled into pieces on sleds and thrown through holes in the ice of the lake, he said.
In the years when Stalin was lying underwater, the Soviet Union collapsed and Kusa fought. Its iron foundry, which was at the center of city life, collapsed and now employs a few hundred workers compared to thousands in its heyday.
A photo of the statue of Stalin in Kusa during the Soviet era.
On August 2, after partially draining the water from the lake to repair a dam, a local photographer discovered Stalin's resurgence in the mud at the lake's edge and posted images online. He informed the city officials, who said they prepared a recovery plan.
But Mr. Stafeyev arrived first. He made his living selling stone crafts, but now devotes most of his energies to a group called Essence of Time, which blames foreign plots and Russian traitors for most of the country's ills.
Mr. Stafeyev said he saw the photographs and left the next day with a handful of colleagues to retrieve the bust. They tied a rope, dragged her to a vehicle and drove her home, before returning to retrieve Stalin's torso and legs, he said.
Mr. Stafeyev and others regained their breasts in August.
Photo:
Stanislav Stafeyev
City officials were surprised by the unusual insult to his authority. The mayor, a former police officer named Valery Vasenyov, told Mr. Stafeyev to deliver the statue. The police interrogated Mr. Stafeyev, but did not open a formal investigation since the statue did not have a legitimate owner, so they could not be recognized as stolen, both men said.
Valery Vasenyov, the mayor of Kusa, said he respected Stalin as a victorious commander in World War II, but he also remembered how his great-grandfather had been a victim of the Great Terror in 1937.
Photo:
Oksana Yushko for The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Stafeyev claimed to have been intimidated and said that the bust was moved to a safe place, and that he has made plans to restore the statue and put it on display, in his front yard, if necessary. Mr. Vasenyov said that the harassment allegations of Mr. Stafeyev are an exaggeration and said that the statue belongs "in a museum, not on a pedestal".
In Kusa, as in other parts of Russia, people hesitate about Stalin's legacy, including those whose relatives were persecuted. Two years ago, the city council rejected the idea of a memorial to Stalin's victims, citing lack of funds.
Mr. Vasenyov, a former soldier, said he respected Stalin as a victorious commander in World War II. But he also remembered how his great-grandfather had been a victim of the Great Terror in 1937, when a suspicion could become a capital crime. The great-grandfather was sentenced to death after a person told him a fortuitous discovery of four rifles informed about him. "He suffered for his long tongue," Vasenyov said. "He should have stayed quiet."
"I can see him as a giant creator but also as a great executioner," said Anatoly Blinovsky, a local historian, about Stalin.
Photo:
Oksana Yushko for The Wall Street Journal
Anatoly Blinovsky, a local historian, said that a detailed account with the Stalin government would divide society into those whose ancestors suffered and those whose ancestors benefited.
His father was persecuted under Stalin, but even he is devastated, as he says that the rapid industrialization of Stalin raised his country.
"I can see him as a giant creator, but also as a great executioner," Blinovsky said.
He recalled that his parents told him about the purges, while the school teachers assured him that the communists could not do such a thing.
"What are we supposed to believe? "We have had porridge in our heads since that moment," Blinovsky said.
Ms. Rostovtseva, the museum's director, said she hopes to find a solution through conversations with Mr. Stafeyev, which she did not rule out. Ms. Rostovtseva would like to place the statue in front of the City Palace of Culture and then the museum, so that everyone can judge Stalin. "Some people kissed him, others deposited flowers," he said, "and others spit."
A monument to Lenin in Kusa.
Photo:
Oksana Yushko for The Wall Street Journal
Write to James Marson in james.marson@wsj.com
.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '369524843414444');
fbq('track', 'PageView');
.
SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM https://www.beviral.online
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario