Gori museum ready to laud Stalin again

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

GORI, Georgia (AFP) — When Russian jets started bombing the Georgian city of Gori, the director of the state Stalin museum had only one thought. The personal possessions of the city's most famous son.

Robert Maglakelidze took a taxi willing to drive him to Tbilisi and hurriedly bundled the prized belongings of Josef Vissarionovich Stalin into the car.

"I was scared for the museum. On August 11, I took Stalin's personal effects in a taxi to the state museum in Tbilisi for safe keeping. I called the taxi and paid for it myself," he told AFP.

"These are things that you simply cannot replace."

Gori, which was surrounded by Russian troops for over a week, became one of the key flashpoints in the conflict with Moscow over the breakaway region of South...