The building is roughly constructed, but most striking of all is the size - a structure barely larger than a caravan that housed young Stalin and his parents.
Today it is the origins of a dictator, but during his reign, the cottage represented the humble beginnings of Dear Father. This pantheon-like structure protects the house where Stalin spent his first years. One in English said "my father was in a Soviet Gulag in Zaporozje. More difficult to assess is the popularity of the museum.įlicking through the visitors' book, there were few entries. In another glass case, his admission letter to the rectory, and the poem above entitled The Morning, in a school textbook from 1916, a testament to some level of pre-revolutionary success as a poet. In one painting, the handsome young revolutionary stands in front of a mob of swarthy workers.Ī photograph of Stalin at 14 has him looking petulant, flanked by photos of his parents, his abusive and alcoholic father Besarion Jughashvili, and his mother Ketevan, wearing a habit and a slightly bewildered expression. The rooms are an old-world ode to Gori's local hero: granite busts, portraits, his writing desk and gifts from around the world in glass cabinets.Īlso on display is the revision of young Stalin's life, shot through the lens of Socialist Realism. It is built and furnished in the architectural style that takes Stalin's name, with long corridors, marble staircases and large rooms of dark polished wood and stained glass. The bronze death mask of Joseph Stalin displayed in the museum in Georgia dedicated to the dictator.