In occupied Mariupol, there are plans to establish a museum dedicated to Stalinist propagandist Andrei Zhdanov. This was announced by the so-called "mayor" of the city, Oleg Morgun, on his Telegram channel.
"We discussed (with a delegation from Saint Petersburg – OstroV) organizational issues related to the upcoming creation of a museum for Andrei Zhdanov in Mariupol", - Morgun stated.
He added that the initiative was a directive from putin.
The glorification of the Stalinist figure is linked to Zhdanov's role as a member of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front during the siege of Leningrad, where he allegedly "successfully led the city on the Neva during the most challenging blockade years". Some contemporaries even considered Andrei Zhdanov a potential successor to Stalin.
However, Zhdanov is better known as the architect of repressions against Soviet, including Ukrainian, intellectuals. Under his orders, campaigns of persecution targeted figures like Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The ideological campaign he launched in 1946 to promote "socialist realism" became known as "Zhdanovism".
George Orwell once wrote: "If in ten years we find ourselves groveling before someone like Zhdanov, then it means that’s exactly what we deserved".
From 1948 to 1989, Mariupol was renamed Zhdanov in honor of the "distinguished native".