Recent years have seen a steady rehabilitation of Jozef Stalin in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Now Moscow’s Metro has installed a
replica of a monument to the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that had been removed in a purge of his memory during the Soviet Union’s de-Stalinization campaign in the 1960s (
Moscow Metro Installs Replica of Stalin Monument May 15, 2025)
The life-sized bas-relief had been unveiled in 1950 at Taganskaya Station but was dismantled in the 1960s. The removal made way for a new transfer corridor, and the original sculpture is believed to have been destroyed.
“Experts are currently recreating the composition from archival photographs and documents. We plan to complete the work in the near future,” Moscow’s Metro had said in a statement released Saturday.
The monument was unveiled to the public on Thursday, following Victory Day celebrations last week and the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, which was first opened during the height of Stalin’s rule.
Architectural historian Alexander Zinoviyev said several key elements of the original relief were not preserved in the recreation, including the ceramic panel, certain colors and ornamental details around the edges.
“Ultimately, this resulted in more of an ideological gesture than a genuine attempt to restore the historical architectural appearance,” Zinoviyev wrote on Telegram.
The new work seems a rather stiff composition, it would be interesting to compare it with the original work in the Socialist-Realism style.
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