A new monument to Joseph Stalin and Soviet metallurgist and academician Ivan Bardin has been unveiled in the Russian industrial city of Cherepovets, marking another visible return of Soviet historical memory to public space.
The bronze composition was inaugurated on 19 July 2026 and is dedicated to the construction of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.
The bronze composition was inaugurated on 19 July 2026 and is dedicated to the construction of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.
Soviet metallurgist Ivan Bardin played a major scientific and organizational role in the project, while the decision to establish the plant was approved at the highest level of the Soviet leadership under Stalin. The enterprise later became one of the foundations of Cherepovets’ transformation from a provincial town into a major center of heavy industry.
Vologda Governor Georgy Filimonov, who attended the unveiling, went further, proposing that a street in Cherepovets should bear Stalin’s name and suggesting that the new public square surrounding the monument could also be named after Stalin or Bardin.
The monument has already been incorporated into tourist routes through the city, with organized groups visiting the site shortly after its opening.
Whatever the anti-communist establishment may say, in the Russian Federation and abroad, the symbolism is difficult to miss: decades after the destruction of the USSR, Stalin’s name continues to return wherever the achievements of Soviet industrialization, victory and socialist construction refuse to be erased from popular memory.
Vologda Governor Georgy Filimonov, who attended the unveiling, went further, proposing that a street in Cherepovets should bear Stalin’s name and suggesting that the new public square surrounding the monument could also be named after Stalin or Bardin.
The monument has already been incorporated into tourist routes through the city, with organized groups visiting the site shortly after its opening.
Whatever the anti-communist establishment may say, in the Russian Federation and abroad, the symbolism is difficult to miss: decades after the destruction of the USSR, Stalin’s name continues to return wherever the achievements of Soviet industrialization, victory and socialist construction refuse to be erased from popular memory.
