The Russian Ministry of Defense considers the return of the bas-relief of Joseph Stalin to the Officers’ House in the center of Yekaterinburg legal and does not intend to remove it from the building, transfers local portal It´s My City. The image of the Soviet leader hangs on the central tower under the socialist banner.
According to the portal, the military called the installation of the bas-relief part of the restoration of the building’s historical appearance.
“The decision to change the historical appearance of the facade of this object, namely the removal of the bas-relief of I. V. Stalin from the facade, will be a violation of the Federal Law of June 25, 2002 No. 73-FZ” On cultural heritage sites and cultural monuments of the peoples of the Russian Federation, ” response from the ministry.
Meanwhile, in the department of state protection of cultural heritage objects of the Sverdlovsk region, journalists statedthat the Ministry of Defense did not issue the approval for the installation of the bas-relief.
On December 13, it became known that in Yekaterinburg, a bas-relief of Stalin was returned to the District House of Officers.
Initially, Stalin’s bas-relief hung on the pediment of the building until 1956. After it was removed in connection with the receipt of information about the imminent visit to Sverdlovsk of the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev.
In March 2021, an old bas-relief was found in the basement of the Officers’ House. At the same time, activists of the For Truth movement, Zakhar Prilepin, asked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to restore the bas-relief on the Officers’ House.