Stalin’s statue removed from his birthplace

LONDON - A statue of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has been removed from the central square in his hometown Gori, Georgia.

The six-meter-high bronze statue will be moved to the courtyard of a museum dedicated to Stalin in Gori, and replaced on the main square by a monument to victims of Georgia’s 2008 war with Russia.

“This monument will be moved to the courtyard of the Stalin museum,” The Telegraph quoted Zviad Khmaladze, a city council leader, as saying.

“A new monument dedicated to victims of the Russian aggression will be erected at this place,” he added.

The unannounced operation has infuriated locals, who claim that the statue was one of the few monuments to Stalin still standing anywhere.

“People from around the world used to visit Gori to see this statue and to pay their respects to Stalin,” said Nugzar Lamazov, who lives in a nearby village.

Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili on 18 December, 1878 to a cobbler in Gori.

Widely reviled as a dictator responsible for millions of deaths in political purges, labour camps and forced agricultural collectivisation, Stalin is held up as a hero by supporters who say the Soviet Union would not have defeated Nazi Germany or industrialized without him.

For many Georgians including pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, the monument was a symbol of Moscow’s lingering influence two decades after the small nation gained independence in the 1991 Soviet collapse. (ANI)