A shawarma restaurant in Moscow with a lot of Stalin’s equipment was closed a day after its opening under great pressure from the authorities.
A portrait of controversial Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hung above the restaurant entrance, and visitors took their orders from a man in uniform from the Stalinist era. The dishes are named after the leaders of the former Soviet Union.
Stalin caused a sensation on social media, and authorities also found the chosen brand to be tasteless. Stalin’s rule was marked by mass repression, labor camps and hunger, but he was also revered by many Russians as the leader who resisted and defeated the army of Nazi Germany in World War II.
According to owner Stanislav Vultmann, the first day after opening was successful with almost two hundred visitors.
“There are no legal reasons for resigning,” he said, adding that the police had ordered him to remove Stalin’s image from the fore. Then he decided to stop the “tremendous pressure” from the local authorities.
“I expected some hype on social media,” Fultman said. “But I did not expect so many TV stations, journalists and bloggers to line up here like what happens at Lenin’s Mausoleum.”
