Posted on 01/20/2005 5:07:49 PM PST by jb6
MOSCOW (AFP) - Moscow has scrapped plans to erect a statue honoring Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and fellow wartime leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in a Moscow monument marking the end of World War II, an official said.
A Moscow city government spokesman told Moscow Echo radio that a statue of Stalin would upset too many people, and the monument would depict just Roosevelt and Churchill.
Praise of Stalin all but vanished after he was denounced by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in a 1956 secret speech to the 20th Communist Party Congress.
Stalin's image disappeared following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, but he remains popular with wide sections of the Russian population. Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the lower house in Moscow, recently described him as a man of "uncommon qualities" who had "done much for the victory of the Soviet Union."
A Stalin bust remains at the Kremlin wall along with those of other Soviet leaders and heroes.
The monument had been expected to appear on a hill known as the Mount of Worship before Russia's May 9 celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Tolkachyov said.
The Yalta conference, held in the Crimean port town in February 1945, marked the Allies' approaching victory over Nazi Germany, with Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill agreeing to divide Germany into US, Soviet, British and French zones.
Germany was divided into two post-war states which were reunited in 1990 with the end of communism in eastern Europe.
Woo hoo! Now if Freemont would jut get it's act together, eh?
Oh Joe, Joe are you there?
It's a fine line in determining whether you're honoring someone or simply respecting their important place in the nation's history.
"Seems the other story had its point of accuracy while not being very true to the event."
Is that "not true" as in the case of the Duranty Pulitzer when the leftist intelligentsia covered up Stalin's genocide of 15 million in 1931 and enboldened the young Hitler to commit his genocide ten years later?
Just curious.
What's your real agenda in that question?
Before replying, let me say that I don't like the idea of Putin resurrecting the image of Stalin for the public square, and that has nothing to do with my remark about the way the story was put about initially.
"I don't agree with banishing Stalin as if he never existed. Rewriting history is fundamentally unethical.
It's a fine line in determining whether you're honoring someone or simply respecting their important place in the nation's history."
A great point, especially because Stalin himself did so much historical revision. It's truly terrifying to think how powerful the art of history is in shaping our worldview. And there are those who think it doesn't matter!
ROTFLOL Gad, what Moscow dare not do, FReemont Latte Liberals install - a Lenin statue. What maroons! ;)
""I wonder if our Russophobes who've been trumpeting the story about the statue (minus the fact it was to stand with Churchill and Roosevelt, of course, will show their mugs on this thread?"
No, we're on the other sites laughing at the "Rotten
egg" revolution
"Yanukovych’s people have put up seven tents and roped off 15 square meters in Lenin Square in Simferopol, Crimea and declared it a “Yushchenko-Free Zone.”
7 tents hahahahaha
and they have that stalin statue in one of them.
"I don't agree with banishing Stalin as if he never existed. Rewriting history is fundamentally unethical. "
Sounds like the reason the NY Times used to keep the Duranty Pulitzer.
Yes - never forget Stalin! Every child in every country must be taught that he and his fellow henchmen liquidated 80 million in the last century.
Hmm, so it was "just Roosevelt and Churchill" who made this infamous deal at Yalta. Interesting.
"What's your real agenda in that question? "
You have to ask? What part of "Stalin was the greatest mass murderer of all time" don't you understand?
My agenda is to reverse the radical chic bs that makes it ok to wear che t-shirts and make the showing of the hammer and sickle more repugnant than the swastika.
Seriously, what difference does it make who is with Stalin -that man was the closest thing we ever had to the 'devil incarnate.
I don't have a problem with a statue of Stalin in the context described in this article, but it's essential that young Russians know the real truth about this man at the same time.
"I don't have a problem with a statue of Stalin in the context described in this article"
Then I have a problem with you.
and how can you possibly compare the confederacy to the worst genocidal maniac of the century?
Do you understand the scale of murder he committed?
stalin was like having a tsunami everyday for 100 days
or a 9/11 everyday for 30 years.
DUHHH!
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