JOSEPH STALIN MUSEUM

Georgia, 1957. Stalin has been dead for four years, and must be immortalized. This is the date of construction of this monument to Stalinist architecture, which has stopped time in its tracks. Inside, large rooms with dark-colored hangings, covered with paintings and photos, show Stalin young, not so young, surrounded, in action... He had some twenty pseudonyms. The museum is dedicated to the "hero", the "Little Father of Peoples", the "Man of Steel". Here, there is no description of the purges, the millions who died in the famine of 1932-1933, the deportations to the Gulag (after all, he is considered responsible for the deaths of 20 million people!).

Nothing about arrests and the like. Just a little: at the end of your visit, head for the basement. Under the stairs is a prison cell. Don't miss it: it's behind the scenes of the official story.

If you have a guide, the museum is worth a visit. The visit gives an idea of the cult of personality. Unchanged since 1959, it's a perfect example of Soviet propaganda, or that of any dictatorship. Not the slightest trace of objectivity or criticism. Every stage of the vojd's life is detailed, from his childhood in the seminary, his expulsion from the seminary (for absenteeism), his meeting with Lenin, his revolutionary activities, his arrests, his escapes, his deportation to Siberia, his accession in 1922 to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party. The emphasis is on the Second World War. 90% of the museum features Stalin as a war leader: the Battle of Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht defeated, Stalin stopped the Nazis' meteoric advance eastwards in its tracks, and was Hitler's first victor, albeit at a high price.

A large collection of gifts is on display, not only from "brother countries" but also from members of the French and Italian Communist parties, expressing their love for the great comrade. Also on display are his personal desk, specially brought from Moscow, pipes and a copy of his death mask. In front of the museum is Stalin's birthplace, a very modest hovel where his parents, former serfs, lived. As Stalin hated flying, he traveled by train to the Potsdam and Yalta conferences. In summer (closed in winter), you can visit his personal carriage parked next to the museum.

The figure still arouses passions. The fury of some locals when, in 2010, the authorities removed one of the statues from Stalin Square reflects this.