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batumi
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Stalin's everywhere in Georgia. Go into any roadside cafe, hotel, office - there you'll find a hand-painted portrait of the great vozhdya - life-size, bigger, ten-feet high - it's nothing unusual. He's held in great esteem. On 9th May, the day the Soviets commemorated the defeat of fascist Germany, we happened upon the Stalin museum in Batumi - a house where he once lived. There you find his room, his bed, his cooking utensils - everything just as he left it before he even took up the name (Stal' means steel in Russian). And there we met this fellow, the president of an organisation to promote the return of a Stalinist ideology. Not only in Georgia, he'd be glad to have me do the same in England. In his kindly way, he describes the disintegration of the present-day Georgian economy. Nobody produces anything anymore - just buying and selling and the omnipresent mafiosi. From him they'd taken a fleet of marshroutki (a kind of minibus) intended for the use and benefit of war veterans. He'd fought a war for them - how could they do that? In Stalin's time, things had been different. Each citizen had had a useful role to play; he knew his importance and significance. But today? Is it any surprise we have such criminality? He takes us to a cafe for fish and bread and beer, and there convinces us that Stalin had made much as it ought to have been.
Solzhenitsyn estimates there were 60 million politically induced deaths inflicted by the Soviet regime.
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His office at the sea port. |
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I really like the framing you put around this. The picture is composed very well- it sets a murky mood. Thanks for sharing!
Rosie
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![Silver Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 22 W: 0 N: 31]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-s.gif)
(767) - [2005-11-11 13:11]
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Enigmatic picture. I like the composition and mood. The note could be a bit more explicit (I must acknowledge, however, that I’m not very good at writing notes myself).
I love the way that you have composed this, with the circular window, bright light, and the strong silhouettes. There are more details there but they are well used and do not distract. I also like the way that you have framed it.
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 651 W: 311 N: 95]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif){kind=small}
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Silver Note Writer [C: 438 W: 16 N: 21]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-s-s.gif)
(2042)