Want to stay at the house of Joseph Stalin, the Communist leader who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist from 1929 to 1953? You need just 10,000 ruble or nearly Rs 10,000.
Stalin's summer home in Sochi is now a hotel. This was the leader's home in the last two decades of his life. His bed and swimming pool and billiards board are all intact here.
Stalin had hosted many historic figures here, like Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. The dacha (country house) is 2 km away from the beautiful Black Sea coast in Sochi. Pine trees line up as one travels there from the sea shore.
Four big buildings can be seen at the resort-like place. One part of it is now a museum. A wax statue of Stalin, sitting on a chair in his office, welcomes you as you enter.
Other parts of Dacha are under renovation.
Stalin's dacha is one of the latest examples of Russia's effort to forget the leader deliberately in the post-Soviet era. In fact Nikita Krushchev (1958-64), who took over after Stalin, had launched the move. He quietly removed statues and places that Stalin had set up to cement his own cult personality.
One of the tales known in history talks of someone asking Krushchev during a speech, "Why didn't you tell this to Stalin on his face?"
Krushchev asked a counter-question: "Who said that?"
No one rose. He then said: "Yes, that's how I also kept quiet then."
Another story about Stalin runs like this:
Stalin and Winston Churchill were having a chat. Stalin asked: "Winston, what's your hobby?'"
Churchill said: "I collect jokes that people crack about me. What about you?"
Stalin replied: "I collect people who crack jokes about me."
Those days of fear are no more, at least inside the dacha. One gets a chance to speak up on his face. The wax statue will quietly sit and listen, without a change of the serious mood.
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