Latest news with #JosefStalin
Washington Post
4 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
A statue of Stalin is unveiled in the Moscow subway as Russia tries to revive the dictator's legacy
A monument to Josef Stalin has been unveiled at one of Moscow's busiest subway stations, the latest attempt by Russian authorities to revive the legacy of the brutal Soviet dictator. The sculpture shows Stalin surrounded by beaming workers and children with flowers. It was installed at the Taganskaya station to mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the sprawling subway known for its mosaics, chandeliers and other ornate decorations that was built under Stalin.
Toronto Star
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
A statue of Stalin is unveiled in the Moscow subway as Russia tries to revive the dictator's legacy
A monument to Josef Stalin has been unveiled at one of Moscow's busiest subway stations, the latest attempt by Russian authorities to revive the legacy of the brutal Soviet dictator. The sculpture shows Stalin surrounded by beaming workers and children with flowers. It was installed at the Taganskaya station to mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the sprawling subway known for its mosaics, chandeliers and other ornate decorations that was built under Stalin.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Below Warsaw's modern surface, a dark past haunts its tourists
"You can ignore history and just look at Warsaw as a modern city. But if you are curious, then you can find something on every corner." The words are from Witold Wrzosinski, director of the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in the Polish capital. The Warsaw native, who oversees the 33-hectare last resting place for the city's Jews, is spot-on when talking about the 1806-founded cemetery, but also about the city as a whole. Anyone who visits the Polish capital who does not come away with learning something of its rich and often tragic history must be walking the streets with blinkers on. Then, Warsaw looks like a chic and modern metropolis: The architecture is appealing, the underground stations are stylish and sometimes so clean that they almost seem sterile. There are many parks to retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life, including the centrally located Łazienki Park, which is the largest. Along the Vistula River, which divides Warsaw's old town from districts such as Praga - now the centre of the city's artistic scene - people like to walk the promenade on warm evenings. The history begins at the Palace of Culture, a monumental building that is impossible to overlook and was erected at Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's behest in the 1950s. At almost 240 metres, it is still one of the tallest buildings in Poland. Once seen as a symbol of communist oppression, Warsaw's residents have now made their peace with the "Stalin syringe" - a reference to the edifice's sharp-shaped spire. It is now home to museums and cinemas, among other things. A travel tip: Take the lift up the spire for a panoramic view of the city and Vistula River. Recalling uprisings The Centrum Nauki Kopernik, the science centre and museum named after Medieval astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), is also located on the banks of the Vistula. Copernicus, who was born in the north-central city of Torun, is considered one of the country's most important scientists. In the neighbourhood, you will discover the former power station Elektrownia Powiśle, a factory building that now houses modern restaurants, cafés and shops. But there is more to Elektrownia Powiśle than just industrial history. The plant was a focal point of the Warsaw Uprising of the Polish Home Army against the German occupation in the autumn of 1944, where workers tried to supply the city with energy during the fighting. The Nazis put down the uprising and then answered it with brutality. On the orders of Nazi SS and Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, the occupiers bombarded the entire city centre. Photographs of this period can now be seen in the Warsaw Uprising Museum and in Polin, a museum devoted to the more than 1,000-year history of Jewish life in Poland. The museum is also dedicated to remembering the Holocaust. It was between mid-April and mid-May 1943 that what remained of Warsaw's Jewish population launched an uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis. It was the biggest Jewish act of resistance during the Holocaust, and it also ended in tragedy. Cast-iron plates embedded at 22 points in the street surface mark the external boundaries of the erstwhile ghetto. The rebuilt historic old city centre To the west of the Vistula, where the historic centre, royal palace and ghetto were located, not one stone was left standing at the end of the war. However, as early as 1945, the people of Warsaw set up an office for the reconstruction of the capital. They wanted to rebuild everything as faithfully as possible. Warsaw's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, is recognised worldwide as the most famous example of a reconstructed city. The memorial to the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto uprising at the Polin Museum is also of great interest to history-conscious travellers: It was here that on December 7, 1970 then-West German chancellor Willy Brandt knelt down in a historic gesture of Germany's expression of remorse for the wartime crimes committed against Poland. One of the most important memorials in Warsaw is also the "Umschlagplatz" - transshipment centre - near the Warsaw Ghetto. There, the Nazis rounded up and then deported some 250,000 Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp 100 kilometres to the north-east. The Jewish cemetery, which was once part of the ghetto border, was spared from the bombs. And so, with its sometimes monumental burial artefacts, to cemetery director Wrzosinski it is a testimony to how generations of Jews lived in Warsaw. Today, 60 people are working on the huge cemetery grounds, including 30 archaeologists who are unearthing buried jewellery and porcelain, but also rifles and cartridges from the time of the Jewish resistance. "We all know how they died," Wrzosinski said of the country's Jews. "But let us here show how they lived."
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Moscow Installs Replica of Historical Stalin Monument in Metro
Moscow's famed metro system has unveiled a Soviet-era monument to Josef Stalin in one of its central stations, as part of a gradual reappraisal of the dictator's legacy in Russia. The life-sized wall sculpture in the Taganskaya metro station is called 'Gratitude of the People to the Leader-Commander' and dedicated to the victory in World War II, according to a statement from the transportation system. It depicts Stalin surrounded by a crowd of adoring civilians.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in Moscow metro stirs debate
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin erected in Moscow's metro is stirring debate, with some Russians welcoming it as a historical tribute, but others saying it's a mistake to commemorate someone who presided over so much suffering. The life-size wall sculpture in Moscow's Taganskaya metro station depicts Stalin standing on Moscow's Red Square surrounded by a crowd of Soviet citizens looking at him in admiration, and is a recreation of a monument that was unveiled in the same station in 1950, three years before Stalin died. The Moscow metro said that the original monument to Stalin had been "lost" in 1966 when the Taganskaya metro station hosting it had been reconfigured. Nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin's 1937-38 Great Terror amid show trials and purges of his real and perceived enemies. Many other Soviet citizens were sent to the Gulag, a grim network of prison camps, spread across the world's largest country. The Moscow metro said in a statement that the new version of the monument, which was presented to the public on May 15, was one of its "gifts" to passengers to mark the 90th anniversary of the sprawling, ornate and famously efficient transport system. The work's original title, "Gratitude of the People to the Leader and Commander,' was dedicated to Stalin's role in delivering victory for the Soviet Union in World War Two, the 80th anniversary of which Russia marked with pomp this year. "This man (Stalin), he created a lot," said Yevgeny Ivanov, a Moscow resident, who had come to look at the new monument on Wednesday. "He has something to be proud of. And it is not for us to tear it down. A man did something - we must respect what he did." Kirill Frolov, another resident of the capital, said he accepted that Stalin's record was mixed and that you couldn't call him "good." But he said that Stalin's role as a victor in World War Two and his successful industrialisation of the Soviet Union meant he had achieved real results and deserved to be remembered. "This man did more for our country than anyone else. That's why I think that this (the new monument) is good and there should be more... Because the generation of, say, the 2000s and later, they don't really understand at all who this is." Others condemned the monument. The Moscow branch of the liberal Yabloko party issued a formal protest against what it called the return of a monument to "a tyrant and a dictator" and demanded that the Moscow metro focus on commemorating the victims of Stalin's repressions instead. "The return of symbols of Stalinism to Moscow is spitting in the face of history and an act of mockery against the descendants of the repressed," Yabloko said in a statement. Unidentified individuals initially left two signs at the monument containing quotes from Russian President Vladimir Putin and former president Dmitry Medvedev which were critical of Stalin. They were later removed. DE-STALINISATION Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his brutality and crimes in 1956 and images of Stalin would later be systematically removed as part of a de-Stalinisation campaign. In recent years, some monuments to Stalin have begun to reappear in some places though his legacy remains deeply divisive. Alexander Zinoviev, a researcher and expert on Soviet architecture, said he felt the new monument and the period it evoked had some parallels with the current mood inside Russia at a time when it is locked in a standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. "It is the same self-isolation, it is the same conservative ideology and reliance on our own strength," he said. "And this theme with Stalin, with his we need to trust our leader and be happy and not criticise those in power, it is very in tune with our time."
