Directing himself to people, the head of the Mirninskii region of the city Anatoly Popov said the following: "We are putting up a monument to a great son of Russia, who gave his people all that he had: talent, organizational abilities, hardness and demandingness, love and passion, not taking anything in return."
Popov also observed that Stalin died without a ruble in his pocket and without having a bank account. Several veterans cried during the course of the speech.
[WS:] It is interesting to observe how the notions of family, sacrifice, and nationalism are fused into the cult of the father-leader. Russia is rich in such imagery, no? It feeds right into George Lakoff's theory of politics.
Wojtek