Joseph Stalin

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A memorial dedicated to the victims of the Soviet Union’s deportation of the Balkars in Nalchik. Image via TASS.

Joseph Stalin

Balkar man seeks to hold Stalin criminally responsible for Soviet deportations

by Luiza Mchedlishvili

•1 min read

A resident of Kabardino-Balkaria has requested that the Russian authorities investigate Joseph Stalin’s deportation of North Caucasians in the 1940s as a crime. Oleg Kelemetov, a Balkar man from Kabardino-Balkaria, requested that Russia’s Investigative Committee investigate the Soviet Union’s Defence Committee’s deportations of populations as a crime and a violation of the country’s constitution. Kommersant reported that Kelemetov seeks to hold specific senior Soviet officials criminally res

Georgia

Georgian speaker accuses USAID of ‘financing religious intolerance’

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•3 min read

The speaker of the Georgian parliament has criticised the US aid agency, USAID, for funding ‘propaganda against the Georgian Church’ and ‘financing religious intolerance’. On Saturday, Shalva Papuashvili also accused ‘so-called civil activists’ and ‘media belonging to the [opposition parties United] National Movement and Lelo’ of attacking the Georgian Orthodox Church. Papuashvili was referring to criticism of the Church for its handling of a scandal surrounding an icon that featured Jose

Sameba Cathedral. Image: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media

Georgia

Georgian Church calls for removal of Stalin from icon in Sameba cathedral

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

The Georgian Patriarchate has asked the donors of a controversial icon featuring Joseph Stalin to remove the Soviet dictator from the icon. The icon, which was donated by the pro-Russian group Alliance of Patriots, chronicles the life of Saint Matrona of Moscow, a 20th-century Russian Orthodox Church saint. One of the smaller icons surrounding the central depiction of Matrona appears to feature the saint and Stalin, sparking controversy in Georgia, Stalin’s birthplace. The church asked th

Far-right protesters gathered outside the house of activist Nata Peradze on 10 January 2024. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

Georgia

Formal investigation and far-right demonstration prompted by paint on controversial Stalin icon

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•2 min read

A group of far-right activists on Wednesday surrounded the house of an activist accused of painting over a controversial icon, after Georgia’s interior ministry launched an investigation into the act on charges of hooliganism. On Tuesday, activist Nata Peradze published a video on Facebook showing blue paint on an icon of St. Matrona that depicts the 20th century saint in the company of a man resembling the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The icon is in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi.

An alleged depiction of USSR leader Joseph Stalin as part of an icon dedicated to St. Matrona of Moscow. Photo: Ilia Chigladze/Facebook.

Georgia

Controversy after Stalin icon found in Tbilisi’s Sameba cathedral

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•2 min read

An icon dedicated to Saint Matrona of Moscow in Tbilisi’s Sameba Holy Trinity Cathedral depicting the saint in the company of a man resembling Joseph Stalin has stirred controversy in Georgia. Footage of the icon in Sameba was first shared on Saturday by Ilia Chigladze, a Georgian archpriest, on Facebook. Soon after, Giorgi Kandelaki, a member of the opposition European Georgia party and a researcher at the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, shot and shared footage of the icon on his social medi

Afrail Isgandarov’s family photo. Photo: Ismayil Fataliyev/OC Media.

Azerbaijan

A history of displacement: Meskhetians in Azerbaijan and Ukraine cling to their identity

by Ismayil Fataliyev

•8 min read

Seventy-seven years have passed since Stalin deported the Meskhetians from Western Georgia to Central Asia; since then, they have faced war and displacement multiple times. Despite continued hardship, two communities in Azerbaijan and Ukraine are still clinging to their identities. ‘More than 30 years have passed, but I want to go back because that place has specific air, water, and nature’, says Afrail Isgandarov, 67, a retired Meskhetian. Along with 250 other Meskhetian families, the Isg

Participants of a demonstration on 23 February in the Novolaksky District. Photo: r_otuzbiev/Instagram

Aukh District

The deported Chechens of Daghestan still unable to return to their homes

by Zhalavdi Geriyev

•4 min read

Seventy-seven years after the deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush nations to Central Asia, Chechen returnees from a small corner of Daghestan still dream of returning to their homes. Every year on 23 February, Chechens and Ingush people mark the tragic anniversary of the Soviet deportations of 1944 on the orders of Stalin — a genocidal event that cost the lives of up to one-third of their total population. In recent years, the largest events to commemorate the day have been held not