Czech village to keep its Stalin monument

The lengthy dispute over a Stalin monument in the Czech village of Studenec has come to an end, Adam Šůra reports. In a referendum the majority of citizens voted in favour of keeping the monument - contrary to the recommendation of the district administrator. "The mayor says: 'We really have better things to worry about than rewriting history. In Finland they left Lenin monuments standing, and in America presidents who had Indians killed are still standing on their pedestals.' One of the residents who sees the monument from his window each day says: 'Of course Stalin was a mass murderer, but his army helped to defeat Hitler.' The young generation adopts the same view. A student says: 'We can't simply pull down what our forebears constructed'."

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