A Prayer for Stalin

“Ten Laris each”, stated the receptionist in her mid-forties without any welcoming gesture let alone a grinning face. To me, she was like a creature transported in a time machine from the Soviet era of the 60’s. I stepped on the marble cold ladder to the exhibition halls at upper floor of the the “House Museum” and once again welcomed by another white yellowish marble statue of Stalin.
The exhibits inside the museum which was built in 1937 were arranged to honor Stalin as the proud son of Georgia who had climbed to the top of his career as the political leader of the USSR. We could scrutinize the brief historical milestones of his life time achievement from childhood, boyhood, adulthood, to his heyday as the Soviet leader and controversial death in 1953.
Most of the exhibits only bear Georgian explanation with Russian translation. Fortunately I can read Cyrillic and understand survival Russian that I could browse all books, propaganda posters, paintings, and manuscripts with the same level of curiosity as those who could read Mkhedruli alphabets. One of my favorite exhibits was a carpet painting contributed by one of the former Soviet Republics showing Lenin and Stalin in Gorky.
The most brain-washing exhibit was the dead mask of Stalin which kept in a semi-dark chamber illuminated with reddish lightings. Here I could not help wondering how this infamous leader of the USSR who happened to be born in this Georgian soil could be both concurrently admired and hated. After the fall of the iron curtain, most of his statues were removed or even demolished all over Russia as well as the ex-Soviet Republics. Only here in Georgia, he still can maintain his former glory as a proud son of this Caucasian land which proclaims its soil as where Europe begins.
There were also many gifts from friends of Soviet Union and Communist Parties from every corner of the globe in the museum. However, one item from India in the shape of a rice grain carved with tiny wordings made my mind wandering in the ocean of wonders. This was the English translation of the prayer :
“O God, give to the most dearly loved and glorified J Stalin the Secretary of the USSR long and victorious life full of achievements and good fortune. Let his friends and brothers-in-arms be devoted to him and to work which he is doing for the benefit of his people. Let enemies of the USSR surrender to him and worship his progressive intentions. O God, augment his triumphs.”
O, What a prayer !
August 2013