Stalin, the crisis and Christmas

Hi subscribers.

This is another somewhat brief newsletter. Not so much has happened this week – if you don’t count the deepening coronavirus pandemic, that is. We now know that here in Austria we’re heading for another, third, full-on lockdown just after Christmas that’s scheduled to last until mid-January at least, when mass testing will be rolled out. There’ll be a curfew and New Year’s Eve will de facto not happen – no parties or gatherings, no fireworks, so I’m wondering if I’ll even manage to stay awake till midnight.

But before that comes Christmas, which will also be quite different. Since the families of both my wife and myself live in other countries, no visits are possible this year. So other than the odd Zoom meeting, we will be on our own just the two of us. Not that we mind each other’s company – quite on the contrary! – but it’s still sad to be cut off from other loved ones. At least, though, we are not in “solitary confinement”, so to speak, like too many other people we know. That, of course, must be infinitely harder still. And I feel sorry for every single one of them.

To lighten things up just a little I will give you a Christmas-themed blog post this coming week with plenty of photos gathered from my archives that were taken on our various travels at or around Christmas … so you can expect some highly unusual Christmas decorations featuring in that post! It will be less dark and more quirky.

This week, again, only one new blog post went up, namely on Friday, to mark the birthday of Stalin, one of the darkest figures in human history, but nonetheless still revered in some (eastern) parts of the world. The post’s text was relatively short; it was more a photo essay, featuring no fewer than 23 photos of Stalin statues, paintings and other depictions of him, and even live impersonators. So also a rather visual post that is. The photo I selected for this newsletter was taken at Grutas Park (aka “Stalin World”) in Lithuania.

As this is the last newsletter before Christmas, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas, as far as that is possible. And keep safe!

Best,

Peter