‘Who else would they glorify?’ In occupied Mariupol, Russia just opened a museum to a key enforcer of Stalinist repressions
Mariupol, a Ukrainian city nearly wiped off the map by Russia’s 2022 siege, is getting a new museum — not to commemorate those who died, but to honor Andrey Zhdanov, one of the chief architects of Stalin’s repressions. “This is an attempt by the occupying authorities to rehabilitate Soviet criminals and rewrite Ukraine’s history,” writes the Ukrainian outlet Telegraf. For many, the Zhdanov Museum is more than just historical revisionism — it’s part of a broader effort to erase Ukraine’s cultural identity. It’s also a fitting reflection of the current Russian government, says historian Alexander Daniel: “It all fits together: the conquered, devastated city and this museum, perfectly suited to the moment.”
Russia has opened a new museum dedicated to Joseph Stalin’s “propagandist-in-chief,” Andrey Zhdanov, in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, RFE/RL’s Sever.Realii reports. St. Petersburg Deputy Governor for Culture Boris Piotrovsky announced that the museum would be a branch of St. Petersburg’s Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad.
Calling its opening a “long-awaited” event timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II, Piotrovsky quoted St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov, saying, “Preserving historical memory is a strategic task.”
“The people of Mariupol also endured the hardships of those terrifying days under blockade. These memories will forever remain in the hearts of our people,” said Oleg Morgun, the head of Mariupol’s Russia-installed occupation administration, as quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda Donetsk. Russia’s brutal 85-day siege and assault on the city in 2022 left thousands of civilians dead and hundreds of thousands trapped without basic necessities. “In liberated Mariupol, we honor and remember the true history of our country.”
At the opening ceremony, Zhdanov’s grandson expressed his “great joy” at seeing his grandfather’s legacy revived, calling it a triumph of “historical justice.”
But Andrey Zhdanov’s true “legacy” includes personally orchestrating the persecution of poet Anna Akhmatova, writer Mikhail Zoshchenko, composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, and other Soviet-era intellectuals and artists.
As one of the main organizers of Stalin’s repressions, Zhdanov also targeted Ukraine’s cultural and intellectual sphere, including institutions devoted to Ukrainian history and literature, creative unions, and newspaper and magazine editorial offices, the Ukrainian outlet Telegraf notes. He persecuted prominent Ukrainian cultural figures such as writer Yurii Yanovskyi, poet Andriy Malyshko, film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, and poet Volodymyr Sosiura.
The Soviet authorities renamed Mariupol — Zhdanov’s birthplace — after him in 1948. But in later decades, his name was systematically removed from public spaces. In 1989, Mariupol shed its Soviet-era name and restored its historical one.
“This is revenge,” Nina Popova, longtime former director of the Anna Akhmatova Museum, told Sever.Realii. “We abolished the name Zhdanov from the city, and now, maybe it will return. Who knows?”
‘Great ghouls of the past’
For Ukrainian historian and writer Yan Valetov, who lives in Dnipro, the museum’s opening is emblematic of Russia’s broader approach to occupied territories. “I saw a video — some thugs wearing Komsomol pins and NKVD uniforms giving speeches in Luhansk,” he told Sever.Realii. “It’s a trend. Russia is sliding back into the 1930s. So no, I’m not surprised.”
Valetov, whose family has roots in Mariupol, said that even in the Soviet era, no one in his family called the city “Zhdanov.” “It was always Mariupol — the city of Maria, a beautiful name,” he said.
He sees the museum, along with Russia’s other efforts to rebuild the city, as a cover for something more insidious. “When Russian forces took Mariupol, they didn’t just destroy the city. They carted off debris, along with human remains from basement shelters, and built homes on top. People bought property there — it’s the same as buying houses on a graveyard.”
Valetov also noted the systematic looting of Ukrainian museums in the wake of the invasion. “I’ve spoken with people who were part of the so-called ‘DNR’ leadership. I asked, ‘What are you doing? This is your land — you lived here.’ And they told me, ‘Well, when we liberated the land from the Nazi occupiers, didn’t we do the same?’ How do you even respond to people like that? To them, looting is nothing out of the ordinary,” Valetov said. “This is an invading army. This is a post-colonial war.”
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Russian human rights historian Alexander Daniel also told Sever.Realii that the opening of the museum came as no surprise to him. “If Putin’s regime had opened a Sakharov Museum, that would have shocked me,” he said. “But a Zhdanov Museum in occupied Mariupol? Who else would they glorify?”
“This is revenge by bastards. In Mariupol — a city they captured and reduced to rubble — they’re opening a museum for Zhdanov,” Daniel said. “And why not? It will leave people with fewer doubts about the nature of this government. […] It all fits together: the conquered, devastated city and this museum, perfectly suited to the moment.”
Daniel sees the museum as a telling reflection of modern Russia. “If a country is ruled by ghouls, then a museum to the great ghouls of the past is only fitting.”
