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The Russian city will unveil a monument to Stalin. The people wanted it, says the governor

“This decision was prompted by calls from the public. There is a demand,” Filimonov explained on his Telegram account, adding that work on the Stalin monument “is already nearing completion.” According to the governor, the monument will appear near the museum building at the place where Stalin lived in forced exile from December 1911 to February 1912.

The governor admitted that there are “ambiguous interpretations” of Stalin, who is credited with millions of victims. It is said that it is necessary to “acknowledge his great achievements, know the history of his country, honor it and be proud of it”.

Already in August, Filimonov attracted attention with a video in which, at the “request of comrades”, he showed his office with a “conceptual” image of the governor shaking hands with Stalin. The study also contained portraits of Soviet leader Lenin and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as busts of Soviet intelligence chiefs Lavrentiy Beria and Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Most of the several thousand Stalin monuments across the former Soviet Union were removed by the authorities after the dictator’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, delivered his report on the “cult of personality”. About a hundred of the original Stalin monuments have been preserved in contemporary Russia, but in recent years dozens of new ones have started to appear.

Filimonov has been at the head of the Vologda region since October 2023, before that he worked in the presidential administration and the regional government of the Moscow region, the RBK news website noted.