The largest museum of Joseph Stalin in Russia is planned to be built in the city of Bor, Nizhny Novgorod region. The four-story complex will be called the Stalin Center and will cost the investor at least 120 million rubles. Another "Stalin Center", much smaller than the one in Nizhny Novgorod, is going to be opened in the fall in Barnaul.
As the initiator and investor of the project, secretary of the Bor branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and businessman Alexei Zorov, told reporters, the construction of the Stalin Museum in the Nizhny Novgorod region began a few days ago.
“Now the site of the future center is being prepared for the construction site. By the end of the week, it is planned to complete the development of the soil, then the contractor will start pouring the foundation slab. Within two months, two basement floors with an area of 400 square meters will appear here.”
The start of the construction of the "Stalin Center" in the city of Bor was repeatedly postponed, last year, for example, due to significantly increased prices for building materials.
The complex will have four floors. According to the Nizhny Novgorod media, the second floor will host an exposition dedicated to the October Revolution and the first years of Stalin's rule, as well as products from Bor industrial enterprises created during the first five-year plans. On the third floor there will be exhibits related to the history of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, on the fourth – the post-war period.
Zorov estimates the cost of construction at 120 million rubles, although earlier he called the figure six times less. “No one took into account that only preliminary figures could be announced. So, previously we counted on 20 million rubles, and now preliminary – on 120 million rubles. But, most likely, investments will be more, ”the member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation explained to journalists.
According to the Rusprofile service, Zorov is the founder and CEO of the only legal entity – Borskoye Mirror Trading House LLC. The main activity of this company is "wholesale trade in ceramics and glass", revenue in 2021 amounted to 34 million rubles, profit – 811 thousand rubles. Commenting on the costs of building the Stalin Center, the communists say that they are also counting on donations from the population.
“The construction of the “Stalin Center” in the Nizhny Novgorod region should be the first step in opening similar museums in all regions of Russia. This will give a powerful impetus to the patriotic education of the younger generation and the fight against distortion and rewriting of history,” said Vladislav Yegorov, First Secretary of the Committee of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the Communist Party.
Perhaps the very first "Stalin Center" will open this autumn in Barnaul, in the premises of the local City Committee of the "Communists of Russia" party. Sergei Matasov, the first secretary of the party's regional committee, promises that representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation will come to the opening of the center.
“This will not be a museum, but a media space, where there will be a place for historical exhibits, and for holding round tables, teleconferences and film screenings. Both an Orthodox priest and a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will be able to come here – everyone who shares our desire for social justice and the restoration of Stalin's name, cleaning it from dirt.
So far, only one exhibit is known that is going to be exhibited in the Barnaul center – this is a recently restored bust of Stalin.
In May 2022, Russian Senator Sergei Bezdenezhnykh, who took part in the opening of Zakhar Prilepin’s headquarters in Yekaterinburg, suggested thinking about renaming the Yeltsin Center to the Stalin Center and opening a “special operation” support center in it. The existing Yeltsin Center, according to Bezdenezhnykh, is "saturated with Western propaganda." “Why not make a museum of different presidents there? Why not "Stalin Center"? After all, the era of Stalin is much larger than the era of Yeltsin, ”said the senator.
Until recently, attempts were made to restore the museum (it is also called "pantheon ") Stalin in the village of Kureika, Krasnoyarsk Territory, on the banks of the Yenisei. According to open sources, it was the largest complex dedicated to Stalin outside of Moscow. Built in 1938 in the place where Stalin served his exile, the building resembled one of the VDNKh pavilions, and at the entrance visitors were greeted by a 10-meter statue of Stalin. However, there were not very many visitors, since Kureika is a small village located in the taiga far from transport routes.
In 1961, the museum was closed; in the late 90s, the dilapidated building was completely destroyed by fire. In 2006, local businessman Mikhail Ponomarev decided to restore the museum. At his own expense, he ordered and installed a new statue of Stalin in front of the former pantheon building, which, however, was demolished almost on the day of installation. A few months after that, Ponomarev was killed, and since then no one has been involved in the restoration of the museum.