Russian Orthodox clergy recently consecrated a statue of Soviet dictator Stalin in Russia in a public event without the diocese’s “blessing” or approval, AFP reported, according to News.ro.

T-shirt with Joseph StalinPhoto: Darko Vojinovic/AP/Profimedia

On August 15, in the city of Velyki Luky in the west of the Pskov region, in front of the plant, in the presence of representatives of the local Communist Party, an eight-meter monument to the leader of the USSR was unveiled.

According to videos published by Russian media, Orthodox priests were present at the ceremony, and one of them sprinkled water on a monument to the dictator, who ordered the killing of thousands of priests and the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The local diocese, subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, announced in a statement on Wednesday that these priests participated in the event “without the blessing and consent” of their superiors.

“Their actions and words do not express the position of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, but reflect only their own opinions and beliefs,” the diocese said, saying they were under the crosshairs of an “inspection.”

Joseph Stalin, who was in power between 1920 and 1953, established a totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union that killed millions of people.

During this period, tens of thousands of Orthodox priests were shot or sent to the Gulag.

By order of Stalin, thousands of churches and religious monuments were destroyed.

In 1943, at the height of World War II, Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church, which had been repressed after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, once again allowing the election of a patriarch placed under the strict control of the special services.

In Russia, the dictator currently has a mixed memory, supported by the Kremlin, which portrays him as the father of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945.

Monuments glorifying him, busts and statues, exist in the country, despite the fact that they are rare.

The Kremlin does not deny Soviet repression, but minimizes it, presenting it as a tragedy without a real culprit.

At the same time, the Kremlin loudly extols the power of the USSR, especially after the invasion of Ukraine, which it presents as “denazification” in line with the legacy of World War II.