City Hall has returned Lenin’s name to artwork in the Kurskaya metro station and might restore a monument to Stalin there as well.
City authorities provoked a heated public debate in August when they restored a verse from the 1944 version of the Soviet anthem reading, “Stalin raised us to be loyal to the nation; He inspired us to work and be heroic” to the entrance hall of Circle Line station.
On Friday night, authorities added another two lines before the verse reading, “The sun of freedom shone on us through storms and the great Lenin illuminated our way,” Interfax reported.
Moscow’s chief architect, Alexander Kuzmin, said Friday that he wanted to return Kurskaya to its original appearance, noting that it had a monument to Stalin when it opened in 1950.
Rights activists say the restoration efforts are part of broader effort to soften history’s depiction of Stalin.