Georgia's Stalin Museum to Focus on Dictator's Crimes

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxivdQIL6MBhuZ0YjCcQEOiKhof-EQaJKK_RzNP9DCNjltdUZF2Sr8ghbK131UJWA_WMPnQK52aqod6zF7de-SexwJSQ2sevqU7H_AM-kobXH9MMFzZk2suUvNaK7yiti0PNkMRGtf29Q/s1600/157511901_11acb7b367_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxivdQIL6MBhuZ0YjCcQEOiKhof-EQaJKK_RzNP9DCNjltdUZF2Sr8ghbK131UJWA_WMPnQK52aqod6zF7de-SexwJSQ2sevqU7H_AM-kobXH9MMFzZk2suUvNaK7yiti0PNkMRGtf29Q/s640/157511901_11acb7b367_z.jpg" width="419" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Stalin Monument in Gori (where he was born).<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/viralbus/157511901/sizes/z/in/photostream/"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">Photo © flickr.com/viralbus</span></a></span></td></tr> </tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The museum in Josef Stalin's hometown in Georgia is changing its focus to highlight the atrocities that were committed during the Soviet dictator's rule.</span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Georgian Culture Minister Nika Rurua said Monday the museum in Gori is incompatible with modern-day Georgia, which became independent in 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The museum was built in 1937 and includes the small house where Stalin was born.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stalin was born Iosif Dzhugashvili in Gori in 1878. He ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist from the early 1920s until his death in 1953.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Historians say that during Stalin's rule, millions of people were executed, died in prison camps, or starved to death in famines caused by the forced collectivization of agriculture.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But many older Russians revere Stalin as the man who defeated the Nazis in World War II and turned the Soviet Union into a superpower. --- VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></div>

Georgia's Stalin Museum to Focus on Dictator's Crimes

The Stalin Monument in Gori (where he was born). Photo © flickr.com/viralbus The museum in Josef Stalin's hometown in Georgia is chan...

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