As we drove through Rustavi today, a former industrial town just outside Tbilisi, I sang along with Bryan Adams (Everything I Do) on the radio and learned from my host that Joseph Stalin was actually a Georgian whose born name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. I was told that “stalin” means steel, and he used that name as an underground name when he was a budding communist revolutionary.  It kind of translates to “man of steel” or “strong like steel.” And then he kept the name as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (which basically meant he was dictator of the state).

The Georgian working class was–and, if I understand correctly, still is–fond of him because he built a giant metal factory in Rustavi that provided jobs and helped the local economy. Well, that took me by surprise, for, in all my life, I’d only heard terrible things about Stalin, so, to hear someone speak kindly of him was a poignant reminder that  “Every story is informed by a worldview” (Brian Godawa).

In other words, where we come from informs how we think.  Indeed. Where I come from, Stalin’s name is synonymous with death and destruction.  An estimated 20,000,000 people in 24 years?  And an estimated 2.5-7.5 million deaths in the Ukrainian Holodomor (“Hunger-extermination”) alone in 1932-33?  That’s a lot of deaths, regardless of worldview.  I could start into a conversation about nationalism at this point, but I’m not feeling quite feisty enough.  Nor do I know enough about such matters to speak intelligently.  But, it does make me think…

For those of you interested in such things, here is more about this historic factory. (All information below is from Rustavi Metallurgical Plant.):

• In 1940, the government of the Soviet Union decided to build a metallurgical plant in the town of Rustavi. This decision was based upon the presence of raw materials in the region and upon the town’s close proximity to existing oil fields on the Caspian. Building works began, but were halted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
• On the 23^rd of March 1944, building was resumed around the South Caucasian railway station of Rustavi.
• In 1946, the first auxiliary workshops (the power plant, the mechanical repair workshop, the shape-casting workshop, the metal construction workshop, etc.) began to operate.
• In 1948 the Plant was officially established.
• On the 27^th of April 1950, the first 150 tonnes of open-hearth Georgian steel were smelted.
• In July 1954 the first Georgian pig iron was smelted in the Plant’s blast furnace.
• In 1954, the first Georgian coke was produced.
• In 1955, the Plant’s sheet and re-bar workshops began to operate.
• Between 1961 and 1991, the Plant’s main installations were systematically modernized, its capacity was increased and the quality of its production was improved
• Between 1975 and 1980, the Plant’s open-hearth furnaces were modernized and their capacity was increased from 150 to 200       tonnes.
• In 1980, following the reconstruction of the Plant’s blast furnace, its capacity was increased from 750 to 1,093m³.

• Between 1944 and 1999, the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant produced around 50 million tonnes of steel and over 36 million tonnes of pipes, reinforcing bars, sheet metal, etc.
• In 1999, the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant ceased to operate.
• In 2006, a British-Georgian private company bought 100% of the Plant’s shares, and the difficult process of rehabilitating it began.
• In 2011, after an interval of several years, the Plant’s production process resumed.
• In 2011, the Plant’s owners and new management brought back its old, historic name.