'Не умер Сталин'

Но как тут быть, когда внутри нас
Не умер Сталин?

But how are we to live here, when inside us
Stalin is not dead?

Boris Chichibabin, 1959

The image above comes from Wednesday's match between Metallurh FC Zaporizhzhia and Chornomorets' FC Odesa. The sign, which reads 'Zaporizhzhia against Stalin,' is a response to the recent erection of a monument to Stalin by the Communist Party of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia.

Metallurh won the match, 1:0.

Stalin Monument Unveiled in Zaporizhzhia

Well, they succeeded. Today the Communist Party of Ukraine unveiled a three-metre monument to a uniformed and decorated Iosif Stalin in Zaporizhzhia, the first erected since Ukraine's independence. Video of the ceremony -- and the attendant protest -- follows below.



The weather was unusually hot in Zaporizhzhia today, and UNIAN is reporting that an elderly woman died during the unveiling ceremony. Three veterans of World War II were also hospitalized.

Communists Plan a Monument to Stalin in Zaporizhzhia

The Communist Party of Ukraine is reportedly planning to erect a monument to Stalin in Zaporizhzhia in time to mark Victory Day on 9 May. Although local authorities officially refused to allot land for this purpose, the CPU is going ahead regardless -- with a private plot of land. According to the historian Viktor Gudz, it is estimated that over 30,000 died in the Zaporizhzhia oblast' alone during Holodomor, the 1932-33 famine for which Stalin was responsible.

Photo: AFP