Saint Matrona And Stalin
By Bob Small
Joseph Stalin, known as Joseph Vissarrionovich Stalin born as Joseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili, has a mixed evaluation from a historical perspective. Many of his actions were monstrous but the Allies might have lost World War 2, if he hadn’t had Russia switch sides. In 2024, he’s still a source of controversy in his native Georgia.
There is an icon showing Stalin being blessed by Saint Matrona of Moscow the Holy Trinity (Saemba) Cathedral.
A youthful Stalin attended the Russian Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis, Georgia with the intent of becoming a priest.
Activist, Nata Peradze threw blue paint on the icon on Jan. 9.
This action generated a reaction in which members of the far-right “Alt Info” party to surround Ms. Peradze’s house but luckily local Police quickly arrived.
Ms. Peradze is not alone in her opinion regarding the icon. Gocha Barnov, a theologian, told TV channel Mtavari Arkhi that the icon’s presence in the cathedral was ‘blasphemous’ and that it should be removed immediately. Davit Tarkan-Mouravi, the leader of the far-right, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia announced that he had donated the icon to the Church.
Stalin became an avowed atheist and that the meeting memorialized in the Icon — which is mean to honor Saint Matrona — is apocryphal at best.
However, let truth not stand in the way of a good story.
Saint Matrona was a contemporary of the dictator, though, being born a few years after and dying one year before in 1952. Like Stalin, she lived in Moscow but as a Christian and many miracles are attributed her.
One reason that Ms. Peradze threw the paint on the icon is her family’s history which she blames on Stalin.
“It’s my pain,” Ms. Peradze told Al Jazeera. “We have no [discussions] about what happened and no memorials for the people who went through hell because of this guy. There were priests on my father’s side and on my mother’s there were dissidents. Some were deported to Siberia and some were lost and we never knew what happened to them.”
There has been a resurgence in Stalin’s popularity in Georgia, with at least 11 new statues of him appearing since the governing Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012.
Perhaps we should remember Stalin as a complicated individual who…how should we finish this sentence?
