Unknown person decapitates bust of Stalin with sledgehammer near Moscow

An unidentified person decapitated a bust of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin with a sledgehammer that was installed in a park near Moscow, Russian media and police sources said on Sunday. “On Saturday, in a park in Zvenigorod (a town forty kilometers west of the Russian capital, editor’s note), a man in an abnormal state cut off the head of a bust of Stalin with a sledgehammer.”An unnamed police source told RIA Novosti news agency.

The Moscow region police press service told RIA Novosti that the suspect is on the run and is wanted by law enforcement. The Telegram channel covering local news posted a video showing the alleged perpetrator approaching a monument with a sharp object and hitting it hard. In the video, we hear laughter and screams in Russian, but they are not clearly understood.

A bust of Lenin was also demolished.

Ostorojno Novosti media published a photo of the bust of Stalin with his head next to his shoulders. The suspect also allegedly smashed a bust of Lenin, tearing off his chin, in the same park, according to another photo provided by this source.

On this media, this monument to the glory of Staline was installed by a group of militants penned in 2023, without according to the local autorites, which does not allow all the people to return, because of the protests against them. His presence.

Ignoring the excesses of Stalinism

In Russia, the presentation of the Soviet dictator, responsible for massive repressions that left millions dead, seems contradictory. While Russian President Vladimir Putin occasionally condemns Stalinist excesses, the Kremlin’s policy today is to generally erase them.

At the same time, the government loudly extols the geopolitical and military power of the Soviet Union in rhetoric aimed at motivating the population, especially since the attack on Ukraine. The victims of political repression have been minimized in school history books, where Stalin is presented primarily as the hero who enabled the Soviet Union to achieve victory against Hitler.

Those who denounce this approach fall into the hands of the authorities. Memorial, a large NGO that lists Soviet repression and the repression of the current regime, was banned in late 2021.