Death threats for a Stalin vandal prompt soul-searching in Orthodox Georgia
Al Jazeera
An icon featuring Joseph Stalin on display inside Georgia’s largest cathedral causes a furore.
Tbilisi, Georgia – When Nata Peradze heard that an icon featuring Joseph Stalin was on display inside Georgia’s largest cathedral, she decided to take action.
“It’s my pain,” Peradze told Al Jazeera. “We have no [discussions] about what happened and no memorials for the people who went through hell because of this guy. There were priests on my father’s side and on my mother’s there were dissidents. Some were deported to Siberia and some were lost and we never knew what happened to them.”
On January 9, the anticorruption activist and avowed atheist went inside Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral to find the offending painting of the Georgian-born Soviet leader.
“I had my method. I had put paint inside three eggs and then waxed them closed. A priest was standing next to me, and I threw the eggs at the painting and he asked, ‘What are you doing?’ I said ‘It’s Stalin, he killed my ancestors!’”
Debates about her vandalism of the icon, named Holy Matrona of Moscow blesses Stalin, turned ugly on Facebook. Peradze received death threats.
Global lender says it will release about $333m to crisis-hit nation as signs of economic recovery emerge.
At least four people have been killed in the attack on the Basta neighbourhood, according to the Health Ministry.
A series of unexplained incidents causing damage to pipelines and cables in the Baltic Sea has occurred in the past two years. Could this be a new form of underwater warfare?
The hedge fund manager will be responsible for implementing president-elect’s pledges to cut taxes and raise tariffs.
Cola Gaza offers its drinkers an ‘apartheid-free’ alternative as they boycott big-name brands.
These were the key developments on the 1,003rd day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Defectors from Myanmar’s military and police are learning skills that could put them on a new path after years of war.
World Health Organization says 226 health workers, patients killed in Lebanon since start of Israel’s war on Hezbollah.
UN health agency says its decision is ‘based on the rising number and continuing geographic spread of cases.’
In a new interview, the scandal-plagued Gaetz reaffirmed his commitment to being a member of Trump’s ‘America First army’.