Translated material
Stalin and the “aggressors”
Georgia is creating an anti-Russian museum
Georgia decided to use the war with Russia to develop the tourism business. By the end of October, a museum of Russian aggression will open in the city of Gori, located less than 30 km from South Ossetia and damaged in August during the armed conflict . This was stated by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Protection of Monuments of Georgia Nikoloz Vacheishvili.The exhibition will be located in the building of the House Museum of Joseph Stalin , who was born in Gori in 1879. A space has already been allocated for this on the second floor. Photos of the destruction, personal belongings of the victims, fragments and other exhibits will be brought there. As a result of the five-day conflict, Georgia lost, according to official data, 370 military, police and civilians.
Nikoloz Vacheishvili said that the museum of aggression will be created “to the highest standards” in order to attract foreign tourists. Specialists from Lithuania and Poland will be invited as consultants. And this is not the first time that Georgia itself has tried itself in the museum-political field. A couple of years ago in Tbilisi, on Rustaveli Avenue, an exhibition was opened that tells about the “occupation” of the country by the Bolsheviks. In 1918-1921, there was an independent Menshevik republic in Georgia, which existed until the arrival of the Red Army.
The Stalin Museum in Gori turns 50 this year, but its employees were unable to celebrate the anniversary because of the war. When hostilities began in South Ossetia, the director of the cultural and educational institution, Robert Maglakelidze, took the Generalissimo’s personal belongings to a special storage facility in Tbilisi - an overcoat, boots, dishes, a pipe, a razor, a telephone.