Deputies accused the director of the Pushkin Museum of insulting Stalin

Deputies of the State Duma of Russia on behalf of the CPRF wrote a collective appeal to the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. They demand an investigation against the new director of the State Museum of Fine Arts Elizaveta Likhacheva. In her interview with the TV channel RTVI, the deputies saw insults to Joseph Stalin. The text of the appeal was published by Sota.

RTVI’s interview with Elizaveta Likhacheva was broadcast on March 23. In it, Likhacheva, in particular, stated: “Stalin is dead. They have passed. He is a subject of pop culture for us, like Mickey Mouse. Every time when people need to be distracted from something serious, important, Stalin gets it.”

The appeal was signed by three deputies: Denys Parfyonov, Sergey Obukhov and Mikhail Matveev. They are asking to initiate an investigation under the articles on hooliganism and rehabilitation of Nazism, and during the investigation to remove Lykhachyova from her post.

“Insulting I.V. Stalin Lykhachev is obviously fulfilling the order of certain Revashist forces to distort history and level the role of the Russian people in the victory over fascism,” the statement says (spelling and punctuation of the original have been preserved).

Later, State Duma deputy Nina Ostanina joined the appeal. She wrote an appeal about Likhacheva to the Prosecutor General of Russia Ihor Krasnov.

Elizaveta Lykhacheva commented on the deputies’ appeals: “If the Prosecutor General’s Office has nothing to do, let them check my statements. They may fire me, probably, they may not fire me. The devil knows, I don’t know, I don’t even want to think about it, frankly, because I have меня работы a wagon and a small cart”.

Likhacheva stated her personal position regarding the figure of Stalin in an interview with RTVI in response to a journalist’s question about why a “portrait of Stalin” hung in her last office. She announced that the photograph of the historical interior of the Moscow metro station “Taganskaya” was given to her by the employees. Until the 1950s, the lobby was actually decorated with a statue of Stalin. Likhacheva has lived near Taganskaya all her life. She said that she regards this photo as evidence of a bygone era.

• Elizaveta Likhacheva was appointed director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts – one of the main Russian art museums – at the end of March, after the Ministry of Culture did not renew the contract with the previous director Maryna Loshak. Previously, she held the post of director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow.