Why does Lenin Museum get state aid?

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By Jarkko Jokelainen
     
      The Lenin Museum in Tampere is heating up emotions again. Last month the Pro Karelia association and the Artillery Guild of the Tampere Region proposed that the museum be renamed the "Museum of the Victims of Totalitarianism", and should showcase information about the crimes of the Soviet Union. The disputed museum also gets support from the Finish state, which grants it about EUR 80,000 a year in discretionary help.
     
Minister of Culture and Sport Stefan Wallin, why does the Finnish state support the museum carrying the name of the first leader of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin?
     
     This is one of dozens of special museums that the state supports and has done so for a long time. The museum has been within the realm of regular state help ever since 1993, and before that, it has been granted discretionary state subsidies. It is good for the museum sector as well if some kind of diversity reigns there as well. This naturally is an example of it.”
     
Does Finland give its approval for the totalitarian administrationi created by Lenin?
     
     “That is not what is involved.”
     
Why does Lenin deserve a museum of his own in Finland?
     
     “The person of Lenin is linked with certain phases of Finnish history, and he has also travelled and operated in Finland. From the point of view of the state, it is a question purely of securing a diversity of museums. With private funding, a museum like that would not survive, of course.”
     
It has been proposed that the museum should be renamed Museum of the Victims of Totalitarianism. Do you support the proposal?
     
     “It is certainly worth looking at who have proposed this. They naturally have their own reasons to shuffle the deck. The victims of totalitarianism can be commemorated in very many ways. I cannot take much more of a stand on that proposal. It was certainly intended as an opening of a debate.”
     
Should the character of the museum be changed somehow?
     
     “I have understood that nowadays the museum has sought to tell about the less pleasant phases of Lenin’s career. There could be quite a big pile of these to be found by reading history books. At the same time the museum is not, nor should it be, a centre of a cult of personality. The museum should always tell about various aspects of the person, and of course there are many shadows and unpleasant phases in the ideology. It is history, but hopefully not the future.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.4.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Lenin had important role in securing Finnish independence - 50 years after his death (6.1.2008)
  Should Tampere´s Lenin Museum be renamed the Victims of Totalitarianism Museum? (21.4.2009)

Links:
  Lenin Museum, Tampere

JARKKO JOKELAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jarkko.jokelainen@hs.fi