The Lenin Museum in Finland will close its doors at the end of the year for a complete renovation, at a time when Finland's traditionally good relations with Russia are getting colder.
Kale Kalio, director of the Lenin Museum in Finland, says it is the most hated museum in the country. It is located in the city of Tampere, in the building where, as some claim, Soviet dictators Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin met for the first time in 1905.
The museum contains reminders of the Soviet Union's forced labor camps and mass murders, but it also aims to make fun of the dictators.
Kalio says the museum took that approach largely based on responses from surveyed visitors.
"The thing that was most requested was Soviet humor, they wanted the museum to be funny. Because of course in the Soviet Union there were many things you could laugh at".
He says the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the views of visitors.
"One of the questions we asked in the survey was - do you think the museum is funny? Interestingly, when the war in Ukraine started in '22, the number of positive responses dropped sharply. People didn't think it was funny anymore."
The fun has turned into the ire of critics who say the museum is trying to glorify not only Lenin but also Russian imperialism.
Vitalij Zabolocki is the president of the local group "Ukrainians of Tampere".
"That museum basically glorifies Russian heritage, which is disgusting given the legacy of the Soviets in Ukraine. I just can't understand why you would do that," he told VOA.
In April, the museum announced it was temporarily closing for renovations that included a name change and a shift in focus to Russian-Finnish relations rather than Lenin himself. It turned out that it is not easy to find finance for that - says Kalio.
Finland and Russia share a 1.300 kilometer border and have maintained mostly good relations, even during the Cold War. That changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Finland joined NATO as public attitudes changed due to fear of Russian expansionist policies. Many visitors to the museum are Finns, but Kalio says that occasional visitors from some of the former Soviet republics often have a very negative opinion of the museum.
"It's much more difficult for them to have the kind of humorous view of the Soviet legacy that we from Western countries can have, and even Russians themselves."
Zabolocki says he is a moderate optimist when it comes to changing the museum's image.
"When you talk about the Nazis, you talk about the Holocaust, about the concentration camps, and I would love to see that same format here, but let's see how it goes. I really can't wait to see how they change it."
Kalio tells Voice of America that the new museum will reflect the cooling of Finnish-Russian relations and will have a more serious tone. Because something that was considered to be quite a part of the past now seems uncomfortably familiar and close to many in Finland.
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