Joseph Stalin Museum

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In the foreground Stalin's birth “house”, in the background the actual museum.

The Josef Stalin Museum in Gori , Georgia , the hometown of Josef Stalin , tells the life of the communist revolutionary and dictator . The style and expression of the museum are shaped by tendencies glorifying Stalin.

organization

The centrally located museum, inaugurated in 1957, is divided into three sections. It was closed in 1989 in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union , but reopened a few years later. Today it is a major tourist attraction for Gori.

Stalin's house

Covered by a Greco-Roman-looking pavilion reminiscent of a temple, the large square in front of the museum itself houses the small hut in which Stalin was born in 1878 and in which he and his father, the shoemaker Bessarion Dschugashvili , spent the first years of his life Life spent.

Stalin Museum

Hall with representations of Stalin

The main building of the museum complex is a palace-like building in the Stalinist Gothic style. Originally started as a local history museum in 1951, it was likely planned from the start as a monument to Stalin, who died in 1953. The exhibits are distributed over six halls in roughly chronological order. In addition to photographs, there are the furnishings of Stalin's office as well as numerous gifts that the dictator received from heads of state. In the last room one of Stalin's twelve death masks is exhibited in a sacred atmosphere (2004).

Stalin's Pullman

Next to the museum, Stalin's personal railway car is on display. The green Pullman wagon was specially clad against assassinations, weighs 83 tons and was used by Stalin from 1941. He drove it to the Yalta and Tehran conferences, among others . The wagon was handed over to the museum in 1985.

Planned redesign

After the Caucasus War in 2008 , the Georgian Minister of Culture Nikolos Vatscheishvili announced that the Stalin Museum would soon be converted into a “Museum of Russian Aggression”. For several years there was a poster over the entrance, the inscription said that the museum was falsifying history and trying to legitimize one of the bloodiest rulers in history. In December 2012, however, the city council of Gori voted against a redesign of the exhibition. In the meantime, a statue of Stalin that was removed in 2010 has also been put back in the city; Opinions on Stalin are divided in Georgia. After all, the Soviet dictator was directly responsible for the deaths of countless Georgians. But a certain pride in the history books' son of the city and economic considerations play an increasingly important role in the decisions about the future of the museum.

literature

Web links

Commons : Josef Stalin Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gori Stalin Museum. comtourist.com, accessed February 20, 2016 .
  2. ↑ В Гори появится музей российской оккупации. on gazeta.ru, September 25, 2008, accessed February 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ Hero and horror: Stalin rebranded. In: The Independent . June 6, 2012, accessed February 20, 2016.
  4. ^ Georgia: A Stalinist Restoration. In: The New York Times December 20, 2012, accessed February 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ Georgia to Reinstate Stalin Monument. In: RIA Novosti December 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ Georgia divided over Stalin 'local hero' status in Gori. on bbc.com, March 5, 2013, accessed February 21, 2016.

Coordinates: 41 ° 59 ′ 14 ″  N , 44 ° 6 ′ 46 ″  E