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Article: Volkogonov's journey. (Russian biographer Dmitri Volkogonov)
- Article from:
- The National Interest
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The National Interest, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The "park of fallen heroes" is the ironical name Muscovites have given to the patch of waste land across Krymsky Val from Gorky Park, where the statues of Soviet leaders are dumped. Here lies a Stalin in polished red granite that once stood twelve feet high; but it was broken while being taken down, and the big red boots lie yards away in the long grass. Unable to stand, Stalin rests on his side on a makeshift bed of concrete blocks. The tyrant has his right hand stuck between two buttons of his great coat in the familiar Napoleonic pose; his nose has been smashed off.
Towering intact over him is the gigantic metal statue of Felix Dzerzinsky, banished hither from the ...