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Stalin bus begins driving through St Petersburg
A bus bearing the portrait of Joseph Stalin has begun
circulating through Saint Petersburg,attracting criticism from
human rights groups in the Russian city.
A bus bearing the portrait of Joseph Stalin has begun
circulating through Saint Peterburg Photo: EPA
1:04AM BST 06 May 2010
The commuter bus, a private initiative spearheaded by a
pro-Stalin blogger, is to run through Saint
Petersburg's historic centre as Russia prepares to commemorate
the 65th anniversary of the defeat of
Nazi Germany on May 9.
Lined with palaces and cathedrals, Nevsky Prospect is a major
thoroughfare of Saint Petersburg,
Russia's former imperial capital.
However, later in the day the bus was attacked by unidentified
individuals who completely painted
over the portrait, the Interfax news agency reported.
"Vandals and so-called freedom fighters spoiled the bus,
painting it over," Viktor Loginov, who
initiated the portrait's placement on the bus, complained.
"The bus will be washed and tomorrow it will hit the road with
the same picture," he vowed.
Mr Loginov, a young Russian blogger, raised money from various
donors to pay for the bus to
cruise the streets with a picture of the former Soviet dictator
for two weeks.
"We are not trying to whitewash Stalin or to clear his name of
the crimes attributed to him,
imaginary or real; we are just trying to underscore his critical
role in our shared Victory," he wrote
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in his blog.
Critics have condemned the bus project for glorifying a dictator
who was responsible for the deaths
of millions of people in the notorious Gulag prison camps and in
the forced collectivisation of
agriculture.
"This is an insult to those people whose loved ones died in
Stalinist repressions," Maxim Reznik,
head of the Saint Petersburg branch of the liberal Yabloko
party, told AFP.
In April the Memorial human rights group sent a letter to Saint
Petersburg governor Valentina
Matviyenko asking her to stop the bus project, calling Stalin
"one of the most terrible criminals of
the 20th century."
Despite the brutality of Stalin's rule, many Russians admire him
for his role in the victory over Nazi
Germany in 1945. Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for nearly three
decades until his death in 1953.
Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013
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