Georgians Finally Topple Stalin

The removal of the most famous surviving monument to Joseph Stalin has been broadly welcomed in Georgia, although many were upset at the secrecy with which the statue was whisked away in the Soviet dictator’s home town of Gori.

Some went as far as accusing Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili of using Stalinist tactics to efface traces of the past.

Residents of Gori woke on June 25 to discover that the six-metre statue of Stalin – put up in 1952, a year before the Soviet leader died – was gone.

In the years after Stalin’s death, the statue was left in place as others were quietly demolished by the Soviet authorities, and it survived Georgia’s transition to independence, when symbols of Communist rule generally were removed.

Under Georgia’s current leadership, time finally ran out for the Stalin monument.

Saakashvili said it was impossible to commemorate the victims of Soviet rule as long as a monument still stood to the man who orchestrated the Bolshevik takeover of Georgia in 1921.

Culture Minister Nikoloz Rurua said that the continued presence of the statue would be “confusing”, and said the authorities would also rename streets and squares honouring the dictator.

The removal of the statue has stirred much debate in Georgia. Many said they were pleased to see it go, but some were offended by the way the government took the decision and carried it out.

The statue survived Russian bombardment of Gori during the August 2008 war over South Ossetia. But that conflict revived calls for an end to the Stalin monument as a symbol of Russian occupation.

Residents of Gori, mainly from the older generation, staged protests to demand that the statue stay where it was.

Giga Zedania, a professor at Ilia State University, is among those who support the removal of the statue, calling it “yet another step towards de-Sovietisation. It isn’t the first step, and it shouldn’t be the last.”

The decision to take the statue down in the middle of the night was probably taken to reduce the risk of protesters obstructing the work.

Local government officials said the work was done overnight in accordance with safety regulations.

A mother and child died last year when a Soviet-era statue dedicated to the victory over Nazi Germany was dynamited.

Local resident Natela Batsikadze said she was happy the statue had gone, but added, “It would have been better to do it during the daytime, in the open, and with the consent of local residents. They could have even arranged an event to mark the occasion.”

Temur Abkhazashvili, a member of the opposition Movement for United Georgia, said he was sure President Saakashvili, not local government officials, was behind the decision.

“De-Sovietisation means decentralisation, but our country is moving towards a centralised system of government, where local government exists only as window-dressing,” Abkhazashvili said.

“I’m not ideologically opposed to the idea of moving the statue from the centre of Gori, but to do it in secret, under the cover of night – that’s a Stalinist tactic. In his day, that’s how they got rid of people.”

Other symbols of the Soviet past are also on their way out. A campaign launched several years ago has seen street names changed from Communist-era heroes to honour the leaders of allied nations and other figures.

A street in the capital Tbilisi, for example, is now named after former United States president George Bush, while another honours the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Kremlin critic.

Journalist Keti Makhtadze lives on Politkovskaya Street, and though she sees her Russian colleague as a role model, she is not quite sure why Vladimir Jikia, after whom the street used to be named, should be forgotten. Jikie fell victim of Stalin’s purges after he called for the creation of a Georgian national army.

“I don’t think the authorities are very familiar with our history,” said Makhtadze. “Giving Politkovskaya’s name to one of Tbilisi’s streets in this way is an insult to her ideals.”

Natia Kuprashvili is freelance journalist in Tbilisi.

Also see Story Behind the Story: Georgians Finally Topple Stalin published in CRS Issue 553, 10 Aug 10.

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