Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 29 – The city of Cherepovets has proposed and Vologda governor Georgy Filimonov has promised to consider the creation of a mural showing among others Lavrenty Beria, Stalin’s notorious secret police chief who was arrested and shot by Stalin’s successors.
Filimonov praised Beria as “an outstanding historical figure” but said that the decision about whether to have a mural memorializing him would be made next year not now (ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/v-cerepovce-hotat-narisovat-mural-s-dzerzinskim-i-beriej/460527).
Opponents of the idea point out that the Russian Supreme Court has ruled that Beria is among those not subject to rehabilitation for his crimes and that putting up his picture as a hero is an insult to his victims and a threat to the future of the country. But they are likely to be ignored.
On the one hand, Putin is pushing the idea of a single stream of Russian history and cherry picking from the lives of past figures positive developments while ignoring their crimes. And on the other, the Kremlin dictator is known to be an admirer of Beria (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/07/putin-admires-beria-one-of-stalins-most.html).
Efforts like those of Cherpovets to memorialize Beria raises a larger question: where will the rehabilitation of those guilty of the crimes of the Stalin era and other periods of Russian history stop. If a mural featuring Beria does go up, there would seem to be little possibility those who want to memorialize other notorious figures will not try to do the same.
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