Photo: Beso Uznadze

THE HERO OF OUR TIME

Fifty years after Stalin's death more material is available about his life than ever before. Most of it is surprising and proves him being responsible for the massive murders and exiles not only during the years of his dictatorship in the late thirties but also in the times before and after it.

The myth of Stalin, the land's most famous son, is being revived in his native country Georgia. In the villages all over the country, especially in those around Stalin's native town Gori, the long forgotten statues of the leader again shine freshly coloured and proudly stand in village squares.

In the quiet garden in the centre of Tbilisi, you can still see Stalin as a young pioneer as well as his stone image on the death bed. »Stalin is still valued as a man of people, someone who took care of them«, says Jevgenij Djugashvili, Stalin's grandson, still living in Georgia. »The press always searches for the bad things I could tell about my grandfather«, he complains, »but that was a great man.«

A common woman holds Stalin's picture close to her heart. She is old enough to remember the civil war, but too young to comprehend the tragedy, caused by the collectivism and banishment of kulaks. Stalin represents old values and a memory of a calm, stable and flourishing Georgia for her. Today, after more than ten years of independence and the civil war, Georgia is still shaken by the unfair law system, economical collapse and growing poverty. Regarding these facts it can be understood that the memories of Stalin still bring comfort.

But this aspect is far from being the general one. There is still a lot of people who don't want to talk about Stalin because of the old fears and sad memories.

A hero or a criminal, Stalin's name still lives in Georgia fifty years after his body was laid next to Lenin's on Moscow's Red Square.