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A bronze statue of Josef Stalin will soon rise again over the museum dedicated to his brutal legacy in the small Georgian town of Gori, where he was born in 1878, the Culture Ministry in the former Soviet republic announced.
The six-metre-tall statue was toppled from its nine-metre pedestal three years ago as vestiges of the totalitarian era in the Caucasus republic were eradicated by pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili.

It has since been lying on the grounds of a military base in Gori.
The monument previously stood in Gori's central square, but plans for its reinstatement indicate it will be erected in the yard of the Museum of Stalinism adjacent to the small home in which the dictator was born.
The Culture Ministry recommended that the new monument be placed at the museum site, but noted the decision on where and when to restore it is up to the local municipality, said Keti Ebanoidze of the ministry's monument protection office.
Saakashvili said he was outraged by the town's decision and the Culture Ministry's approval of the plan to have the controversial statue back in place by December 21, the day recognised by Gori's local government as Stalin's date of birth.
"Restoring the Stalin monument in the 21st century is an unimaginably barbaric, anti-Georgian, anti-national, anti-state act, because it puts Georgia in international isolation," said the president, who leaves office in October.
Saakashvili and his United National Movement Party led the independent republic's purge of Stalin tributes over the past decade. But the president's authority has been substantially weakened by a constitutional reform that shifted power to the prime minister's office, currently held by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who reportedly backed the campaign to restore the monument to Stalin.
Statues were erected across Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe in homage to the Georgian tyrant who ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He was responsible for the deaths of millions.
But many in his native Georgia still regard Stalin as the guiding force that propelled the Soviet Union to victory in the second world war and built it into a superpower to rival the US.
A March report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found 68 per cent of Georgians considered Stalin "a wise leader who brought the Soviet Union to might and prosperity", although many said they wouldn't want to live in a country ruled by Stalin.


Stalin statue rises again in his birthplace in Georgia

Stalin's statue after it was dismantled three years ago. Photo: Reuters

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Statue of Soviet tyrant taken down in town of Gori will go back on display outside museum


A bronze statue of Josef Stalin will soon rise again over the museum dedicated to his brutal legacy in the small Georgian town of Gori, where he was born in 1878, the Culture Ministry in the former Soviet republic announced.


Stalin statue rises again in his birthplace in Georgia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Statue of Soviet tyrant taken down in town of Gori will go back on display outside museum

Statue of Soviet tyrant taken down in town of Gori will go back on display outside museum