Another Bite Of History

By Mel Goldberg

 

stalinOn March 5, 1953, Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili Stalin died of a cerebral hemorrrhage. His body was preserved and placed in Lenin’s mausoleum. Dora Abramova, a staunch party member, said she had kept Lenin in her heart to help her through hard times.  She said she had consulted her hero who told her, as if he were alive, It is unpleasant to be next to Stalin, who did so much harm to the party. 

Led by first secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev, who championed de-Stalinization, the Politburo issued a statement that Dora Abramova was correct. Stalin did not honor Lenin’s vision for a better world, had abused power, and had repressed the honorable Soviet people in his cult of personality. Therefore he did not deserve to rest alongside the great Lenin

So on October 31, 1961, his body was removed from its place of honor and reburied near the Kremlin wall. His grave, half-hidden by trees, had a small bust and the simple inscription J. V. STALIN 1879-1953

But recently some devoted anti-Stalinist Bolsheviks found the unassuming grave. They dug up the remains and ground the bones to dust.  To the dust they added sour yeast-based dough, beat in some eggs and onions, and filled small trays with the substance which they baked. They then announced Stalin’s fate anonymously on Facebook:  he had become pirogi.

What would good proletariats do if Stalin pirogi appeared next to their morning coffee at Starbuck’s at the shopping center Mega Khimki in Moscow? Oh, wait, there is a theory that eating your enemies absorbs their powers.  It’s a type of spiritual mystery. The end result is always shit, though one man’s shit is another’s compost.

Now we know that history has always been made by common men and women although the Bolsheviks who dug up Stalin said their actions had no inherent value. So people of the working class who daily toil in factories or groceries might bring a bit of Stalin home and set it on a plate to have it as an evening snack with vodka.

And after all is said and done, who cares if Stalin pirogis are a fiction? Memorializing death is complex. Costco now sells its caskets online.

The past is never done. It always comes back and must be consumed over and over again.

VISIT MEL’S WEBSITE: www.authormelgoldberg.com

 

Pin It
 Find us on Facebook