Stalin’s Museum in Gori
Gori is neither a landscape wonder nor an architectural arrogance. But this small town in Eastern Georgia has a powerful story: it is the birthplace of Ioseb Jugashvili, known as Joseph Visarionovich Stalin, responsible for the deaths of 20 million people.
This does not prevent the inhabitants of this town from treating his memory, with a certain pride. It is an ambiguous feeling, however, because the young people are fully aware of the horrors Stalin was responsible for, while the old communists still consider him a great statesman.
It is a real palace which overwhelms you from the entrance with an intense communist atmosphere. A rather fanatical female guide machine-gunned us information about Stalin: his childhood, youth, and revolutionary actions.
The museum is not an apology for Stalin’s actions, but rather a luxurious detailed presentation of his life, the focus being on the personal side, without any mention of the atrocities committed. It’s like a historically imposed tolerance.
In the main building it’s almost everything you need to know about Stalin – including his mortuary mask, kept in a sumptuous amphitheater. Some gifts, pens, pipes, his last pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, a military uniform, a travel suitcase, paintings, photos and letters. Outside, near the main building there’s a green wagon, part of the personal train used by Stalin since 1941 with which he traveled to conferences in Yalta and Tehran.
At one point, a culture minister announced that the museum would be reorganized into the Museum of Russian Aggression and for several years, a banner that read “This museum is a fake of history” stood at the entrance of the museum. In 2017, however, the banner disappeared and it seems that things will remain as they always were.
Stalin’s Museum in Gori
Gori is neither a landscape wonder nor an architectural arrogance. But this small town in Eastern Georgia has a powerful story: it is the birthplace of Ioseb Jugashvili, known as Joseph Visarionovich Stalin, responsible for the deaths of 20 million people.
This does not prevent the inhabitants of this town from treating his memory, with a certain pride. It is an ambiguous feeling, however, because the young people are fully aware of the horrors Stalin was responsible for, while the old communists still consider him a great statesman.
It is a real palace which overwhelms you from the entrance with an intense communist atmosphere. A rather fanatical female guide machine-gunned us information about Stalin: his childhood, youth, and revolutionary actions.
The museum is not an apology for Stalin’s actions, but rather a luxurious detailed presentation of his life, the focus being on the personal side, without any mention of the atrocities committed. It’s like a historically imposed tolerance.
In the main building it’s almost everything you need to know about Stalin – including his mortuary mask, kept in a sumptuous amphitheater. Some gifts, pens, pipes, his last pack of Herzegovina Flor cigarettes, a military uniform, a travel suitcase, paintings, photos and letters. Outside, near the main building there’s a green wagon, part of the personal train used by Stalin since 1941 with which he traveled to conferences in Yalta and Tehran.
At one point, a culture minister announced that the museum would be reorganized into the Museum of Russian Aggression and for several years, a banner that read “This museum is a fake of history” stood at the entrance of the museum. In 2017, however, the banner disappeared and it seems that things will remain as they always were.
