Joseph Stalin Museum

Gori, Georgia

The Joseph Stalin Museum is a museum in Gori, Georgia dedicated to the life of Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, who was born in Gori. The Museum retains its Soviet-era characteristics.

The museum has three sections, all located in the town's central square. It was officially dedicated to Stalin in 1957. With the downfall of the Soviet Union and independence movement of Georgia, the museum was closed in 1989, but has since been reopened, and is a popular tourist attraction.

Stalin's house

Enshrined within a Greco-Italianate pavilion is a small wooden hut, in which Stalin was born in 1878 and spent his first four years. The small hut has two rooms on the ground floor. Stalin's father Vissarion Jughashvili, a local shoemaker, rented the one room on the left hand side of the building and maintained a workshop in the basement. The landlord lived in the other room. The hut originally formed part of a line of similar dwellings, but the others have been demolished.

Stalin Museum

The main corpus of the complex is a large palazzo in Stalinist Gothic style, begun in 1951 ostensibly as a museum of the history of socialism, but clearly intended to become a memorial to Stalin, who died in 1953. The exhibits are divided into six halls in roughly chronological order, and contain many items actually or allegedly owned by Stalin, including some of his office furniture, his personal effects and gifts made to him over the years. There is also much illustration by way of documentation, photographs, paintings and newspaper articles. The display concludes with one of twelve copies of the death mask of Stalin taken shortly after his death.

Stalin's railway carriage

To one side of the museum is Stalin's personal railway carriage. The green Pullman carriage, which is armour plated and weighs 83 tons, was used by Stalin from 1941 onwards, including his attendances at the Yalta Conference and the Tehran Conference. It was sent to the museum on being recovered from the railway yards at Rostov-on-Don in 1985.

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Address

Stalin Avenue, Gori, Georgia
See all sites in Gori

Details

Founded: 1957
Category: Museums in Georgia

Rating

4.1/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Polina Vinnikova (2 years ago)
Created in Soviet era, this museum is a nice example of Stalin's empire style and Soviet Culture of that time, as well as propaganda. However, we were lucky to get to a tour with local museum guide and I have to admit that the excursion was very informative and interesting. They totally understand that most part of the exhibit was created by the culture of propaganda. They also tried to expand the exhibit with new information related to repressions. But currently the process of renovation of the exhibition is frozen, unfortunately. My personal opinion is that together with the exhibition of Soviet occupation, which is located in the National Museum in Tbilisi, this museum will help you to create relatively fair picture of what were happening during the Soviet's era.
Alexandru Barbulescu (3 years ago)
Great place for history lovers. The whole place oozes communism, so it is also a museum of communism. Very, very authentic. Well worth the trip.
Tomáš Krupa (3 years ago)
Interesting museum with a lots of incredible photographies and paintings from Stalin's life. The only con is, very few descriptions are translated into English. People who can't read Cyrillic won't understand much.
Anthony Aleksic (3 years ago)
Very well put together. The birthplace of Stalin. Great place to learn about the sheer hypocrisy of the left. It started early.
desiree Dragon (3 years ago)
Clean well maintained museum with a rich history. 5 gel entry per person and guide service are extra. Houses a beautiful museum. Train that Stalin used , the house where he stayed which is beautifully preserved and a garden as well. Must visit for a bit of history.
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