Stalin museum director flees with artifacts during Russian bombing
Last Updated: Monday, September 1, 2008 | 2:04 PM ET
CBC News
The director of the Josef Stalin museum in Gori, Georgia, says he had to flee to the capital of Tbilisi in his car loaded with precious items from the museum during the Russian bombing of the country.
Gori, Stalin's birthplace, was the first to be attacked by Russian troops in the brief war in August that followed a Georgian incursion into the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia, located just north of Gori.
Josef Stalin, pictured here in 1950, was head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and premier of the Soviet state. He died on March 5, 1953. (Associated Press) "I had to take the risk," Robert Maglakelidze told Reuters in reference to his decision to drive the dangerous 75-kilometre stretch of road east to Tbilisi. The town of 50,000 was also occupied by Russian troops during the conflict until Aug. 22.
The situation remains unstable even with a ceasefire agreement brokered in mid-August. Russian troops still maintain roadblocks within the borders of Georgia.
"Thank God, they didn't bomb the museum, but there was no guarantee. We said 'let's preserve these things for future generations.' These personal things can't be replaced."
The museum escaped relatively unscathed, save for a few smashed windows and lots of dust in the halls.
Officials say the museum — which gets up to 25,000 visitors a year — is expected to re-open on Sept. 8.
With plenty of official portraits of the former leader, the museum also features the tiny brick and wood house on its grounds in which Iosif Dzhugashvili was born in 1879. He later changed his surname.
The institution, officially opened in 1959, is comprised of three buildings which circle Gori's main square.
Maglakelidze says certain priceless items are now stored in a Tbilisi museum and once the Georgian parliament has taken a decision to lift the official state of war with Russia, he'll bring them back to Gori.
Maglakelidze says he thinks the recent fighting may bring more visitors to the museum: "The whole world knows about Gori now."
