Sometimes we need to wait for some things to happen. We have passed the town of Gori several times and for good reasons my parents were not enthusiastic about visiting the museum of Joseph Stalin. At the same time, the period of WW2 and soviet era is part of mine and my sister´s curricullum at school recently, so we agreed to go and visit the Museum. We have explored the bunker of Tito near Konjic in Bosnia before, so all of us were wondering what we will see here in Gori…..
Being a birthplace of Stalin is the central universe of Gori and the house where Stalin was born is in fact the Gori´s heart. A massive construction was built there to preserve it. As we did not have any expectation visiting the place and were ready to accept any vibes, still we got surprised how many tourist come to visit. Especially the Chinese, some of them even in military uniforms, taking video shootings going throught the exhibition, taking selfies and bow in front of the Stalin statue. Pure admiration and inspiration of how great The Steel Man was (Stalin means steel in russian, I have googled out)! Scary, if you consider the set up, size and population of China. “Brothers in arms, brothers in blood” my dad adds.
All the walls in all the halls are decorated with large paintings of Stalin – he is revoluationary, he is the leader of the communist party, he talks to workers in factories, he is explaining the village people the collectivization, he is hugging the pioneers…..of course, he leads the soviet army to beat the Nazis….History repeats as you follow the visits of the leader of North Korea or any other dictator anywhere….Back to the museum, all accompanied by many photographs, gifts he has received from all around the world. We found some fine pieces of porcelain from the Czech Republic as well, decorated for the sake and purpose….Unfortunately, the english descriptions are super minor and only describe the big victories and successes. The great victory defeating Hitler, great number of people died/killed because of the war, their political opinion, dying of hunger or in camps in Siberia.
To be fair, there is a very small exhibition well hidden below the main staircase, describing the political processes and executions of many during the time Stalin was in charge. We haven´t seen not a single Chinese visitor entering there and I waited there a few minutes, just for the curiosity. But written there it was rather a problem of the ruling communist party, Stalin´s hands remain clear. For this reason I add here one article you may easily find on internet to evaluate the life and work of the boy from Gori. I do doubt that I have some followers of my blog there far east in China so they can see the other side of the coin, but not only for them…
Joseph Stalin: National hero or cold-blooded murderer? – BBC Teach
I admitt it was a very interesting visit and we´ve learnt a lot here. My dad was happy to visit Stalin´s railway wagon sitting next to the museum as well, where he was told it was the very first coach to have an electrical frigde…Truth or not? Stalin used to travel in that train a lot, again what a parallel to the latest visit of Kim Cchong Un in Russia…. It seems Gori and its people, even the young generation, admire their famous citizen and are proud of Dzhugasvhili.
One of our first trips in Georgia was Racha, where you can find one of the residences of Stalin. It´s an admirable place in the middle of a beautiful mountain range, the previously fancy house is “inhabited by pigs and cows” and is falling into pieces as the glory of the Soviet Union. You can have a glass of thick semi-sweat red Khvanchara wine (Stalin´s favourite), most popular and only harvested there. I haven´t tasted, of course, my parents did. And, by accident, if you drank too much as Joseph is reported to do frequently, there must be a terrible hangover.
Let´s be ready to learn the truth, to evaluate facts, to use common sense, and to avoid hangovers.
