{"id":107804,"date":"2024-01-08T12:34:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T08:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/?p=107804"},"modified":"2024-01-08T16:18:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T12:18:35","slug":"myth-as-if-stalin-met-saint-matrona-of-moscow-before-the-war-with-hitler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/en\/myth-as-if-stalin-met-saint-matrona-of-moscow-before-the-war-with-hitler\/","title":{"rendered":"Myth As If Stalin Met Saint Matrona of Moscow Before the War with Hitler"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 7, 2024, Bondo Mdzinarashvili, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster, published a <\/span>post <\/span><\/a>about the icon of the St. Matrona of Moscow and Stalin displayed in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi. According to Mdzinarashvili, in 1941, Stalin met with Matrona Nikonova, and with her advice, the icon of the Mother of God was taken to the front line, which protected the USSR from the fascists.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition, the media union “Obieqtivi” shared a <\/span>video <\/span><\/a>of Irma Inashvili, the leader of the “Alliance of Patriots of Georgia” party, where she also talks about the meeting between Stalin and Matrona and adds that depicting negative figures on icons is a common practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irma Inashvili<\/b>: “After that, a conversation between Holy Matrona and Stalin took place, and then the Icon of the Mother of God was displayed, which helped the fighters against fascism in these positional battles, and then the opponents of fascism achieved a number of successes, and this episode is depicted there. Why is Diocletian depicted, for example, on the icon of St. George? Why is the dragon depicted on the icon of St. George, i.e. the devil, and why are real devils depicted on icons? Let’s turn it all around, change the iconography then.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Later on, another leader of the “Alliance of Patriots” party, Davit Tarkhan-Mouravi, <\/span>said <\/span><\/a>in a video address that he himself donated the mentioned icon of Matrona to the Holy Trinity Cathedral and that it depicts Stalin, who humbled himself before the holy Matrona because of the persecution of the churches.<\/span><\/p>\n

The claim that Stalin met the Holy Matrona is false. In fact, the story of their meeting is only a legend and is not confirmed by historical facts. The use of the icon was initially protested in Russia as well, due to which the icon was removed from the church. As for the depiction of negative persons and devils on the icons, they are mostly depicted as degraded and defeated.<\/b><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n