The Georgian communists are collecting signatures for construction of a memorial to Stalin in Gori

The communists in Gori, Joseph Stalin’s native town, are collecting signatures under the demand to restore his memorial earlier dismantled in the central square. Five thousand signatures are already collected.

“Since the moment of dismantling of the memorial built in the center of Gori earlier we have been striving for construction of a memorial in the territory of Stalin’s memorial house. We have repeatedly appealed on the issue to local authorities and the Ministry of Culture and monument conservation. We collected about five thousand signatures”, Chairman of regional branch of “United Communist Party of Georgia” Alexander Lursmanishvili said.

According to representative of the initiative group Shalva Tlashadze, collection of signatures will be accomplished by the end of the week. Then, on October, 29, the group will submit a petition to sakrebulo (local council) and offer a project.

According to his information, the memorial has not been sold but a private collector wishes to purchase it and is ready to pay 17 000 dollars, “Georgia Online” reports.

Representatives of the municipal council informed that the memorial would be erected in Stalin’s memorial house after reconditioning is accomplished in the territory of the museum, IA “Novosti-Georgia” informs.