The Wandering Scot

An occasional travel journal.

Browsing Posts tagged Stalin

I’m in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, in the Russian Far East. I was visiting the city’s WWII memorial, when I suddenly spotted a familiar face. It can’t be, can it? Yes it is! Stalin himself. Smiling calmly, without a care in the world. What was most startling is that the bust is quite new, erected just last year.  […]

Tirana: Familiar Faces

I was striding past Albania’s National Art Gallery when I suddenly spotted a familiar face lurking at the back. Wait, it can’t be? Can it? Yes, it is! Stalin himself, larger than life, glaring disdainfully at the passers by! It turns out that an area behind the Gallery has a small selection of communist-era statues. […]

Samara: Stalin Bunker

I am in Samara, where I have successfully infiltrated the Stalin Bunker. The bunker was build in great secrecy and in great haste in 1941, when Moscow was in danger and Kuibyshev (aka Samara) was the fallback Soviet capital.  But Moscow survived and Stalin chose to stay in the city even during its most dangerous […]

Moscow: Stalin Bunker

The word “bunker” evokes images of a grim concrete shelter; dark, dank and ugly. Well maybe for most people, but not if you’re the Red Tsar. Moscow’s Stalin Bunker is positively palatial, with faux marble columns, a large domed conference room, and a paneled private office. Between 1933 and 1939 the Soviets built a sprawling […]

Stalin in Vladikavkaz

I’m in Vladikavkaz (“Lord of the Caucasus”), North Ossetia, Russian Federation, where Stalin lurks. I was visiting the fine WWII memorial park “Monument to Glory”.  And there he was, posed casually in front of a giant historical mosaic. The most surprising part is that the bust is new, added in 2009 by the local Communist […]

Stalin in Virginia

The US National D-Day Memorial is in the small rural town of Bedford, VA. Overall it’s a fine, elegant and well designed monument, commemorating a key WWII event.  But it has recently become noteworthy for a certain small addition… The Memorial include busts of the principal allied commanders and of all the principal allied leaders. […]