Uncle Joe’s standing
The unprepossessing Georgian town of Gori is famous for two things. Last summer it was briefly at the top of the news agenda when it bore the brunt of the Russian attack during the war with Georgia; and in 1878 it witnessed the birth of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Stalin is revered in his home town as a true local hero. His "official" birthday is celebrated each 21 December, and his portraits grace the walls of homes and shops next to the icons of St George.
It used to be this way all over Georgia. According to the social psychologist Gaga Nizharadze, Stalin's image was "mythologised" in Soviet Georgia. In a country where pride and getting your own way are the mark of a real man, his absolute wilfulness was seen as a virtue: "People admired Stalin not in spite of him killing millions of people, but because of that - the guy could do anything he wished, and in Georgia people look up to that," Nizharadze argues.
But things have changed. Whereas sticking up for Stalin used to be shorthand for sticking up for Georgia, after independence he began to be seen as the ruthless leader of an empire that brutally subjugated his homeland. Now, knowing someone who admires Stalin is embarrassing, a bit like having a mildly racist grandparent. He has become a toxic asset, undermining the image of the new Georgia that Mikhail Saakashvili's government has tried to create.
During the 2008 war, Georgian politicians routinely compared Stalin's invasions of his neighbours with Russia's actions against Georgia. T-shirts and stickers were emblazoned with "Finland 1939, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania 1940 . . . Georgia 2008". Stalin now firmly represents the Russian threat, and it seems unlikely he can ever recover his countrymen's affection. This is in stark contrast to Russia, where Stalin is being rehabilitated as a national hero: in a recent television competition, he was voted the third greatest Russian of all time. In the equivalent "Greatest Georgian" competition, he's at number 39.
But in his home town, Stalin is still number one. In the main square, his statue sternly regards the passing traffic, and Gori's absurdly hagiographic Stalin Museum refuses to acknowledge the existence of either Trotsky or the purges - though this could all be about to change.
The government, along with many Georgian intellectuals, sees these last vestiges of a cult of personality that once spread from Berlin to the Bering Strait as an embarrassment. Vice-Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze says it is "shameful for a civilised country to have a monster's statue" on display. He has proposed that the statue be moved to the Stalin Museum, which is to become a Museum of Soviet Occupation.
However, there are those in Georgia who view this final round of de-Stalinisation as anathema: the tiny Communist Party sees America's hand in the proposal. They say that the government is merely attempting to deceive the Georgian people into abandoning their most famous son. While they accept that Uncle Joe is not as popular as he once was, they are sure his legacy will be restored in the coming Marxist revolution.
The government, which will usually take momentous decisions in a nanosecond, seems uncharacteristically cautious about removing the statue. Destabilised after the war, it doesn't want to risk rocking any boats: the prospect of a Stalinist sit-in in Gori does not appeal. Leaders say they don't want to push the decision through, that the local government has to agree.
They might take some comfort from the leader of the "Stalin Organisation", Grisha Oniani. "I'm not against moving the statue," Oniani says. "It only has a function if it's alive, if people go there to remember Stalin." If the government gets its way and the statue is moved to a Soviet occupation museum, people may well go to Gori to remember Stalin. Just not in the way that his remaining fans in Georgia think.
