Gori is in the news because of the escalating war between Russia and Georgia. Its most famous son is Joseph Stalin. In Gori today, there is a Stalin Avenue, three Stalin statues, including a giant one in front of city hall, and a Stalin Museum, the city's main tourist attraction. Its exhibits mention no Great Terror purges, gulags or mass starvation. When Stalin died in 1953, Tố Hữu, Communist Vietnam's most powerful poet, wrote an ode in mourning. I translate:

Ode to Stalin

A mother showed to her child
A portrait of Stalin among children.
His smile is benign; his eyes bright;
And his shirt is bright
Against red clouds.

On a field of greens he stands among
Children with flowing red scarves
And eyes looking towards the future.

Stalin! Stalin!
How I loved my child's first word
When he said the word Stalin!

The fragance of milk in a babe's mouth
Is like the dove of peace on a clear night.

The village speaker blared,
Tore my stomach to shreds.
Oh how the village convulsed;
Oh how can it be ... He's dead!

With Stalin gone, how much less the earth?
The love for my father, my mother, my wife,
The love for myself is but a fraction
Of the love I had for you.

The love for my child, my country, my race
Is nothing but a fraction
Of the love I had for you.

The dried boughs of yesteryear
Were brought to life by you;
The tattered shirt I wore
Was mended by you;
My full pot of rice
Was filled by you.

You delivered us from wretchedness,
Gave us land to till on. This debt,
How can we forget?

This legacy I'll bear
On my two shoulders:
One side for Uncle Ho,
One side for you.

Listen, child, you don't know how
Your very existence is owed
To Uncle Stalin.

Mist lingers on the early road.
Smoke rises over the village.
How we will weep for Uncle Stalin.

Much superior artists to Tố Hữu, most notably Picasso and Neruda, have tainted themselves by celebrating a man responsible for 20 to 60 million deaths. Tố Hữu spent decades writing obsequious and bloodthirsty poetry and, as a high-ranking Party member, was also very dangerous. Near death in 2002, he circulated a poem intended as a goodbye. I translate:

To my most beloved friend in life

A few lines of verse and a bit of ash

Poetry for life, ash for the soil

In life I give, in death I also give.

In life I was a dog, in death a dog.

Images, from top to bottom: Statue in front of Gori's city hall; Charcoal drawing by Picasso, 1953; Oil painting by Komar and Melamid, 1982-83.