And you thought the history debates here got a little rough....A Russian businessman who founded a museum dedicated to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten to death by a group of unidentified assailants in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, police officials said Friday.
Russian news agencies quoted police officials as saying on Friday that business tycoon Vasily Bukhtienko was attacked by three unidentified men on a tennis court in Volgograd, which was once known as Stalingrad.
The assistants reportedly attacked Bukhtienko with an electric shock devise before beating him up brutally. He later succumbed to his injuries sustained in the attack. Police said the motive for the attack is not yet clear.
They were just trying to get him to confess to being a Trotskyite wrecker, or maybe a Czarist agitator.
Bukhtienko had set up a four-room museum dedicated to Stalin in 2005 near a memorial commemorating the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad. Apart from the museum, Bukhtienko reportedly owns several other business establishments, including the Cafe Stalingrad and several hotels.
The cafe serves up a bitter brew for German tourists.
An estimated 700,000 people were killed in the Battle of Stalingrad, which ultimately led to the surrender of Germany's 6th Army on 2nd February, 1943. Many historians believe that the Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in World War II.