We went to Gori, Georgia, birthplace of Joseph Stalin. He was Premier of the Soviet Union and apparently he was not a good guy, so my pinching the head of his statue at this Stalin Museum is probably apropos.
From 1928 until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union as a dictator, transforming the country from an agrarian peasant society into a global superpower. The cost was tremendous, however: Stalin was responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens.
Between the early 1930s and his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin had more than a million of his own citizens executed. Millions more fell victim to forced labor, deportation, famine, bloody massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin’s henchmen.
This museum included all parts of Stalin’s life. He was sentenced to prison five times for political unrest and sent to Siberia. He escaped four of those times!
His left arm was mangled, most likely in a carriage accident and it was permanently disfigured and shorter than the other. So he often was photographed with his arm behind his back, holding a pipe, or his sleeve pulled down over his hand. He also suffered a case of childhood smallpox that killed his two siblings and that left terrible scarring and pockmarks on his face. Photographs were often repaired to erase those marks. (our current day photoshopping). Stalin followed as a leader when Lennin died. Trotsky was Stalin’s enemy and Trotsky was often ‘erased’ from photographs that they were in together. It was not a good erasure job; sometimes, Trotsky was just covered with white paint.
Although his mother doted on him, Stalin’s father was a drunk who routinely beat him.
Stalin was married and had a son. His first wife supposedly committed suicide, but it is suspicious and no note was found. He remarried and had more children. That daughter moved to the U.S., changed her name to Svetlana, and lived to an old age.
When his first son was caught by the enemy, tortured and held for ransom to get leverage to make Stalin do something; Stalin did nothing to get his son back. That son died at age 40’s.
Toward the end of the tour of this museum, the docent kept mentioning “the negative story”. Yes! I’d say causing the deaths of millions of his own people WAS ‘a negative side of the story’. In the little room, they allotted space for photographs of his atrocities. But most of the docent description was a litany of the other museums and names of books that DID list and show all Stalin’s atrocities.
This was Stalin’s childhood home. They removed all the surrounding houses and kept the actual house and little street that ran down the side of this house.
This was the train car Stalin used when he traveled throughout his country. This is how many rich and and influential people traveled in the 1930’s and 40’s throughout the world.
The train car had little bedrooms and a living room. This was the bathroom. They even had air conditioning, piped into each room of the train car.
OK, I’ve lost all knowledge of where I was, what this was and why we should care. But it’s a nice picture.
Another church with beautiful scenery. This poor woman would bend over and dig weeds out of the grass!! Sheesh!
The paths must have been like a labyrinth, since I can’t imagine walking the path like that for no reason. Otherwise, I’d just cross the grass.
I think the colorful car is cool — it seems to be more of a plant store than a vehicle.
And as many other cities in Europe, this is the remains of the city wall and fortress that protected the residents from marauders.
The first picture is more of the walls of the city for their protection thousands of years ago.
I’m sure the statues are of important people…..just don’t know who.
I found it interesting the designs on the wall. At the far right, they have a bunch of broken chains signifying their freedom breaking out from communism.
Sometimes dad asks what kind of cars they drive. So I took some pictures. One always needs a police and coke car.
Thought it interesting they didn’t even have a printed label for this wine they make for their restaurant, Pheasant’s Tears.
It was Alice’s 75th birthday!!! This woman, holding the cake, made this home-made cake the night before. Who does that anymore??? It was very good!
Another church and museum with beautiful grounds. There was a maze of wonderfully manicured bushes. I went into it as far as the tree with the ribbons on it; but was afraid I’d never get out.
I just realized how brilliant this restaurant is!! Worldwide, their address, email address and website is issued across facebook.
The dessert was spectacular!!
I can’t get enough of foreign marketplaces. Just LOOK at this stuff. And the reused water and coke bottles are filled with local fermented wines and sold. Probably not real sanitary — but it’s wine — self-cleaning. And the white stuff is tripe which they really eat — it’s cow intestines.
More churches. But disappointed that many are filled with this type of scaffolding to hold up what is ready to collapse due to old age and earthquakes.
Sacrilegious??
The story here is that each vessel for making wine has a Holy name attached to it and on that saint’s holy day, the owner must have a huge party and invite all his family and friends in honor of that saint and for the wine to be blessed. If they cannot continue this tradition, for whatever reason, the vat must be given to the church with that saint’s name. And that’s what all these vessels are doing here at this church. Many people have given up on the old traditions.
Beautiful photo. I think this was Ikalto Monastery, founded in the 6th century. The ruins were the Ikalto Academy, an important scholastic center in Georgia.
These are the types of walkways that are just a total BITCH for a small wheelchair to deal with. The wheels would just get stuck in between the stones. Lynn stayed in shape just pushing it around! And she did it in flip-flop sandals!! You GO girl!
My ‘artsy’ picture of the day.
OK, here’s another artsy pic.
I keep thinking Tom is leaning against the wall trying to portray a sexy look. ….but he’s just waving.
The two white strips at the bottom of the picture were the bones of a saint. The robe is not the original, but a depiction of the robes they did wear.
Lunch at another winery and museum. The holes were buried vats for wine-making. When the wine is fermented and gone, men climb down ladders into the vessels and clean the inside with brooms, they dredge out the sqeezings of the wine, and the water that is left at the bottom is left in there to evaporate on its own. It sounds very unclean. So much so that at lunch there were two glass pitchers with red and white wine and no one but me drank any of it. I figure the wine should act as an antiseptic and save my stomach from sickness. I experienced no problems.
The top of the jug is covered with a dirty looking basket thing.
I thought the table with all the money from different countries of the world was interesting. Dad used to put (all US Dollars) under the glass of a table at his house and let the grandkids point to money hidden under a tablecloth, to acquire whatever denomination to which they were pointing.
I have one more blog regarding these two countries.
Please leave a comment if you like. I will be the only one who sees it.
Linda Jeanne