Josef Stalin 'returns' to Moscow metro

The spirit of Josef Stalin has made a controversial return to the Moscow metro in the form of a giant Soviet-era decoration that lavishes fawning praise on the late dictator.

Liberal historians and politicians have condemned the adornment's reappearance after almost half a century, suggesting it reflects a worrying Kremlin-backed trend to rehabilitate the Soviet leader for patriotic propaganda purposes.

The decoration is a huge gilt-edged slogan that takes pride of place beneath eight Socialist realist statues in the newly restored entrance hall to one of Moscow's busiest metro stations: Kurskaya.

It was painstakingly removed in the late 1950s along with other pro-Stalin propaganda after then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his murderous purges and cult of personality.

But at the end of August it made a surprise return. A fragment of the Stalin-era Soviet national anthem, it reads: "Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people. He inspired us to labour and heroism."

It will be seen by millions of Muscovites. The metro, which is state-owned, estimates 7-9 million people use it every day, making it the busiest underground transport system in the world. More