Father of the people and father of the people's orphans: a monument to Stalin and Academician Bardin, who adopted the children of the repressed, will be erected in Cherepovets
In Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast, preparations are in full swing for the installation of a joint monument to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the distinguished metallurgist and Vice President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Ivan Bardin. The monument is scheduled to be unveiled on Metallurgist's Day, July 19, 2026. The juxtaposition of victim and executioner on the same pedestal has sparked heated debate in the region and exposed the historical paradoxes of creeping Stalinization.
"Special Role" in Industrialization: The Governor's Position
The monument's installation was initiated by Georgy Filimonov, head of the Vologda Region. He believes that Joseph Stalin, along with Ivan Bardin, played a "special role in the development of Cherepovets as one of the country's largest metallurgical centers." It was during Stalin's era that the city's industrial foundation was laid and decisions were made to build the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant (now Severstal).
However, local communities and journalists immediately pointed out a tragic contradiction in the biographies of the people whom the monument's creators decided to combine into a single sculptural composition.
A rescuer of children from the repressions of the Stalinist regime
The local Vologda publication 35MEDIA drew attention to an extremely important and noteworthy fact from Ivan Bardin's biography, which regional authorities chose to remain silent about:
"We suggest that Cherepovets tour guides carefully study the biography of this outstanding Soviet metallurgist before the monument's unveiling. After all, they'll have to answer awkward questions from city visitors about Bardin, who adopted 11 children of his repressed colleagues."
Academician Bardin, being the head of the largest metallurgical construction projects in the USSR, secretly took in and adopted the children of his comrades, engineers and scientists who were shot or perished in the Gulag camps during the terror organized by Stalin.
Historians joke that standing in the same group photo (or pedestal) with Stalin during the Soviet era was considered a bad omen: typically, the closest associates of the "father of the people" were first sent to court, and then their figures were carefully retouched from group archival photos.
Residents protest and the fourth monument to the leader in the region
Some residents of Cherepovets openly opposed the installation of this monument. They insist that Stalin's role in the country's industrialization cannot be considered in isolation from the mass terror, forced prison labor, and the destruction of the technical intelligentsia.
Previously, renowned Vologda historian Ivan Dzhukha published an open letter addressed to Governor Georgy Filimonov, in which he reminded officials in detail of specific locations in Vologda directly linked to the crimes and executions of the Stalin era. However, the expert community's voice was ignored—the new monument in Cherepovets will be the fourth to Stalin erected in the Vologda Oblast in recent years.
Cult statistics: 105 monuments under Putin
This trend is nationwide. According to the research project "We Can Explain," as of May of last year, there were officially at least 120 monuments to Joseph Stalin in Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine. Of these, 105 were erected during Vladimir Putin's presidency.
The process of rehabilitating the Soviet dictator is rapidly gaining momentum in the regions: in 2025 alone, 17 new memorial sites, busts, and plaques dedicated to Stalin were unveiled in various regions of the Russian Federation.
