The last Georgian, Orthodox Christmas was not a day of national communion.
This January 7, citizens discovered with amazement in the Trinity Cathedral a new icon dedicated to the “Matron of Moscow” including, in one of the seventeen sketches arranged around her full-length representation, a full-length Stalin gray coat, docilely receiving the blessing of this saint who lived from 1885 to 1952 and who is the subject of popular worship, particularly among Russian women.
It was enough to trigger a virulent controversy in the native land of Joseph Stalin, the scene of a civilizational trench war between those who aspire to become “Europeans” (more than 80% of the 3.7 million Georgians, according to the latest polls) and various segments of society, including the government, who remain willing to come to terms with the former colonial power.
“It was too much, especially in this year when we commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the August Uprising…
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