Georgia divided over Stalin ‘local hero’ status in Gori

On the 60th anniversary of the death of Soviet supreme ruler Joseph Stalin there is still controversy over how to view his legacy in his homeland Georgia.

Millions died when Stalin imposed iron discipline and state terror to root out “enemies of the people” and build a communist state.

But in the town of Gori, where he was born, the city council recently decided to re-erect a huge statue of Stalin, which the pro-Western government of President Mikheil Saakashvili took down almost three years ago. It is a sign, historians say, that the country needs to confront its Soviet past.

Gori’s main tourist attraction is its museum to Stalin. The ornate building, with its collection of heroic photographs and Stalin’s death mask, appears frozen in time – a Soviet shrine to the dictator, almost untouched since the museum was built in 1957.

But Olga Tochishvili, who has worked as a guide here since the Soviet era, says attitudes towards Stalin are changing.

“In Georgia, most of the old generation like Stalin. They think he was a great statesman, with his small mistakes. Young people don’t like Stalin, of course. Our young people are not interested in history and they don’t like Stalin.”