Naval delights

Who and why installed a bust of Stalin in Kaliningrad. Spoiler: Not the Communists

The first bust of Stalin appeared in Kaliningrad. Earlier, the city authorities managed to ignore the perpetuating of the leader, which led to a conflict with local communists. However, the appearance of the bust was not the Communist Party, but by the Baltic Fleet, who had previously opposed the philosopher Immanuel Kant.

For the first time, the text was published on the website of the project "Wind".

Joseph and his competitors: Friedrich, Immanuel, Elizabeth

The bust of Joseph Stalin was presented to the Kaliningrad house of officers to the 80th anniversary of the institution. On July 9, he was handed over to the commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral Sergei Lipilin with the words: "History must be true."

As the head of the house of officers Vasily Kucher told the local media, he himself evaluates the gift positively. “Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin is our Supreme Commander -in -Chief, the head of our country. This is one who did not allow the death of our country in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, ”the chief said. The leader’s bronze bust will be transferred to the museum of the 11th Guards Army, where the busts of the commanders Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Bagramyan and Kuzma Galitsky are already located.

Although the local governor Alexei was unprecedented and attended the ceremony, not a word about this in his official telegram channel.

The authorities of the region have not yet come to consensus whether Kaliningrad needs a full -fledged monument to Stalin. The press service of the local administration was informed that they will not comment on the installation of a bust in the house of officers, because this is the initiative of the Baltic Fleet.

By the way, the Baltic Fleet and its initiatives were already in the media and led to scandals. Here is the case of 2018, when a local airport was renamed in Kaliningrad. Residents voted to give the airport the name of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, a native of Koenigsberg. And then the chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Igor Mukhametshin, said that Kant was a “traitor to the Motherland”, “wrote some incomprehensible books” that none of the modern Russian troops “read and will never read”. After that, the monument to Kant was doused with paint. As a result, in the Victory Names Competition (with signs of obvious vote wrapping), Empress Elizabeth Petrovna went to Empress. Well, today the fleet gives the museum a bust of the Soviet leader.

In the local branch of the Communist Party, we were told that although we were very grateful to Baltflot, it was precisely the long-term activity of the Communists to the emergence of Stalin in Kaliningrad. In recent years, they have been lobbying for the installation of the monument to Stalin, but they cannot agree with the authorities.

“We have been collecting signatures for the last two years in support of the monument to Stalin - Veterans, Veteran organizations; Given that Joseph Vissarionovich was even a deputy of the city council of deputies of Kaliningrad in recent months of life. With such a stream, we made the installation of a bust. Of course, I would like to erect a monument, but we need the fundamental consent of the authorities, we will seek it together with veteran organizations, ”the head of the department Maxim Bulanov told the wind.

According to the communist, today in the region is a surge in interest in the personality of Stalin. This was confirmed in an interview with him, according to him, the governor: they say, many appeals from citizens demanding to erect a monument to the Soviet leader.

“But the governor and I agreed that the priority task is to perpetuate the memory of the heroes of Sv,” Bulanov shared. -And I hope that in the near future the government and I will find some points of attraction, land plots where you can erect a monument to Joseph Vissarionovich. We have royal monuments, and German, Schiller, for example. Why not perpetuate Soviet history? It would not be Stalin, it would not be clear where the Kaliningrad region would be, maybe they would attach it to the Lithuanian SSR, but Stalin made a fundamental decision that the region should be part of the USSR. ”

Spit in the souls of the Communists

Today in Kaliningrad there is only a bas -relief with the image of Stalin on a monument to 1200 guards. And, according to Bulanov, the monument to the leader would perfectly fit into the Victory Park in the neighborhood. But six months ago, the city authorities opposed the initiative of the Communists. The mayor Elena Dyatlova in an official response to the Communist Party of the Communist Party reminded of Stalinist repressions and wrote that the installation of the monument is inappropriate.

“Perennial terror and mass persecution of their people, committed from October 25 (November 7), 1917, were convicted as incompatible with the idea of law and justice”,

- noted in the answer. The concept of state policy on perpetuating the memory of victims of political repression and the regional book of memory of victims of political repression were also mentioned.

For the Communists, this caused a lot of indignation. They stated that they were shocked by the mention of repressions and books of memory: “This is not just a refusal, it is a spit in the face of veterans, rear workers, everyone who forged victory under the leadership of the Supreme Commander. The Communist Party is confident that this decision is not just a personal opinion, but a clear anti -Soviet position, aimed at denigrating Soviet history and the great feat of our people. A link to a book of memory made, as you know, with the active participation of foreign funds, setting the goal of rewriting a story for the sake of Western interests, looks especially cynical.

Maxim Bulanov then threatened that the Communists would launch the action for the resignation of Dyatlova. Six months later, he states that there is no more open conflict with the mayor. With the woodpecker, he intends to fight in other ways.

“As I heard, backstage, she signed that document without looking. Like, her assistants wrote, she signed. We have no conflict with the woodpecker. But we will not allow to kick Soviet history, refer to the materials of the Memorial society, and the book of repression. Does she offer me to read the materials of foreign agents? Well, okay, maybe a person was mistaken. But we have a lot of questions regarding the competence of the city administration: roads, infrastructure, transport. The powers of the administration end in September 2026, and I think that the theme of our candidates will concern the city’s state, to which the work of the city administration led to, ”Bulanov notes.

The opinions of citizens in social networks about the monument diverge (spelling features are preserved):

“It is a pity that this issue was not resolved by popular vote. I would vote for a monument to Stalin. He is a great man, and only one that the Soviet Union defeated fascist Germany, and the fact that now we are alive and live in Kaliningrad, Stalin earned an eternal memory, ” writes one of the users.

But they immediately remind her that there are more important things to do:

“Communications are falling apart, the roads are broken, the eternal problem of dilapidated housing, pensioners make ends meet ... But the monuments are our everything !!! To demolish some, put others, but you know how much the demolition of the monument costs? And the installation, pedestal and manufacture of sculpture? Well, the sculptor is copyrighted? Whoever needs to muddle the vote with a ruble, although I’m afraid that they will shake off the thicknesses, and they will again recoup on ordinary people with raising prices and a decrease in salaries. The best monument to the leaders is a prosperous prosperous country, ” users write.

Instead of Stalinism, do not care

Stalinism has no prospects in the Kaliningrad region, according to a political scientist, ex-deputy of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma Solomon Ginzburg:

“When I worked in the regional administration, back in 1993, I did this, in connection with the 40th anniversary of the death of Stalin’s death,” the political scientist told the Wind. - We studied trends related to the prospects of Stalinism. Then there was a confrontation between the Red Postalin Supreme Council in Moscow and a rather radical democratic line, which was held by the presidential administration, headed by Yeltsin. And in the 93rd year, and on the 50th, the 60th anniversary of Stalin’s death, and according to later data, the focus groups were clear that in the Kaliningrad region there were no prospects for Stalinism. This is due to the fact that the region is young, did not live as part of our country in the 1920-30s, during the war years. She was attached at the end of Stalinism. Therefore, authoritarianism did not go deeply. And now, when a bust of Stalin appeared, here we are talking about fashion: such a cosplay of Stalin’s management methods. ”

According to Ginzburg, it is unlikely that the mayor Elena Dyatlova, who refused to erect a monument, is a progressive, democratic person. It was simply that the city administration studied the data and realized that there are more minuses in the installation of the monument.

“There is such a request for a strong hand in the southern regions, in the Krasnodar Territory, in the North Caucasus - there is an appropriate social base, a craving for the relics of the leader. We, Kaliningraders, are no more progressive, we are different. We have no request for Stalinism, we have another, vile disgusting phenomenon - do not care. Spit on everything, if only they did not touch me. I live autonomously, atomized, if only there was a sofa under the ass, the Internet, a Bank of beer, TV - this is a request for this. The sprouts of civil society are destroyed. Well, as for the house of officers, it is visited by a rather specific audience, ”the political scientist notes.

Once the leader has already been melted to the bushings

In the Kaliningrad region, even in the Soviet years, with perpetuating the leader, everything was not easy. The monument made by the sculptor Wuchetich was erected on the main square of the city - Victory - after the death of Stalin, in the fall of 1953. Although Soviet propaganda claimed that the formation of the Kaliningrad region is associated with the name of the leader.

“At every step we felt the fatherly care of Joseph Vissarionovich. Thanks to his constant attention, a joyful, happy life blossomed in the aged fire devastated by the fire of the primordially Slavic land, ”

- Trustil the main mouthpiece of propaganda - the newspaper Kaliningrad Pravda.

In the main square, the monument stood only five years, and then was postponed "at the request of the workers." His place was taken by Bronze Lenin, and Stalin was sent several hundred meters to the side, to the city square. They transferred the monument at night and accidentally split it, had to urgently restore it. But in a new place, Stalin stood only a few years: in 1961, after debunking the personality cult, the sculpture was removed and sent to the re -melting - "urban tramas who experienced the acute shortage of bronze bushings of wheeled steam."

In 1962, by order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, this monument was excluded from the list of monuments of art of state significance. The Stalingrad district of the city of Kaliningrad was renamed Oktyabrsky, and Stalingradsky Prospekt in Mira Avenue. For more than ten years in the square on Leninsky Prospekt there was an empty pedestal. In 1974, the Mother Russia monument appeared here.

Creeping Stalinization

But today in Russia the reverse trend. New monuments to Stalin appear in the regions, the streets are named after him. And on July 5, the Communist Party of the Communist Party announced erroneous reporters Khrushchev about the personality cult of Joseph Stalin. This historical document was submitted at a closed meeting of the delegates of the XX Congress of the CPSU on February 25, 1956. The draft resolution of the Communist Party says that the report “contains fledged facts and false accusations against I. V. Stalin, distorts the truth about his state and party activities.” Also, the Communists still hope that it will be possible to achieve renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad.

“Creeping Stalinization has been going on for 25 years, under a variety of masks. It began with the return of the anthem, which appeared by the will of Stalin. The return of symbols went. And the monuments to Stalin, of course, now there are a lot of them. And for many years, a Stalin figure has been arising around May 9. Today it seems that he not just died, but literally alive, ”the historian, co -chair of the International Memorial Association, Irina Shcherbakova, tells the“ wind ”.

Today, Joseph Stalin is a powerful symbol of the absolute power of the state over man. And this image is necessary in today's Russia, which is its propaganda: Russia is strong, aggressive, which everyone is afraid.

“And behind this is a restification about the collapse of the USSR. But Stalin held him with an iron hand and disposed of the fate of these ungrateful peoples: the Baltic countries, Western Ukraine. The desire of revenge, victory is connected with Stalin, ”says Shcherbakova. - If at the XX Congress Khrushchev proposed a formula that not Stalin won, but the entire Soviet people, now this formula is crossed out. And it will have very sad consequences. ”

It is interesting that for many, Stalin also remains a symbol of a certain confrontation with the current authority, the historian notes: “Stalin did not need anything - no golden palaces, yachts, mistresses, nothing of this. He is a symbol of completely pure power, which does not need anything earthly vulgar. And a symbol of the fact that everyone should be afraid, there are no untouchables - from members of the Politburo to the very last janitor. Putin from this even somehow isolated. And what is happening now is such a postmodern cosplay. ”

Today in Russia they massively erase the memory of Soviet repressions, the laws are changing, and the police come to commemorative events dedicated to the victims of repression. There are still no exact data on the number of victims of the Stalinist repressions. According to the most modest calculations , about 10 percent of the population affected the repression. The Human Rights Society "Memorial" counted at least 12 million repressed, the Gulag Museum of History declares 20 million.

Author: Julia Paramonova