Josef Stalin never visited the west-Siberian city of Surgut. But earlier this month, local activists from the nationalist Russky Dukh (Russian Spirit) movement erected a bust of the Soviet dictator on the embankment of the Ob River.
“The idea came up when we were celebrating the 70th anniversary of victory [over Hitler’s Germany in 1945],” Russky Dukh activist and Communist Party member Denis Khanzhin told RFE/RL. “To honor the leader of that victory: Generalissimus Josef Stalin.”
