Georgian authorities pull down another Stalin monument, at night to avoid protests
By APSunday, June 27, 2010
Georgian authorities pull down Stalin monument
TBILISI, Georgia — Authorities in Georgia on Sunday tore down another monument to Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin.
The monument in the town of Tkibuli in western Georgia was taken down two days after authorities tore down a bigger and more famous monument to Stalin in his hometown of Gori.
Both statues were brought down in the middle of the night in an apparent bid to avoid protests and media attention.
Stalin was born to a modest family of cobblers in 1878. Both monuments in his honor were erected before his death in 1953.
The Georgian government says a younger generation who have embraced Western ideals of freedom favor the dismantling of Stalin’s monuments.
Georgia’s Culture Minister Nikolos Rurua said the government will also soon rename Georgian streets still carrying Stalin’s name.
“A memorial to Stalin has no place in the Georgia of the 21st Century,” President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday. Saakashvili’s government said a memorial to the fallen in the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 will replace Stalin’s statue in Gori.
The Western-leaning Saakashvili began a crackdown on Soviet-era monuments last December when a massive World War II memorial was tore down in Kutaisi, drawing protests from the Georgian opposition and from Russia.
Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid a cornerstone to a smaller replica of that monument in Moscow last month.
