Cancelling Stalin
The fierce debate over Georgia's most controversial figure
In Georgia, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is a divisive figure. While he is regarded by many as a tyrant who killed his own people, many still hold the native Georgian in esteem.
Grigol Oniani is a collector of Stalin memorabilia and owner of a museum dedicated to Stalin in Tbilisi. He goes to great lengths to preserve the monuments to the Soviet leader: "When Khrushchev announced there should no longer be monuments to Stalin, the communists tore down the Stalin monument. They ran over it with a tank and threw it somewhere. I searched for 40 years before I finally discovered where it was buried." Many of the older generation respect Stalin for his role in the Second World War. "Fascism was defeated by Stalin, by the Great Genius" says Grigol. Stalin was born in a town called Gori, and his childhood home is preserved there. Teona, a local resident, is part of a generation of Georgians who oppose the glorification of Stalin in Georgian culture. "We are living through a hybrid war. Part of this hybrid war, part of the Russian propaganda, is this monument to Stalin. The only place he belongs is the history textbooks, just like Hitler" she says.
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