If the U.S.S.R. had a Mount Rushmore ...

... this is what it might look like:



I came across a store selling these monuments and statues after visiting the Central Market -- about a 20-minute walk from my apartment. Imagine decorating your home or garden with some pieces like this:



I wish I could take some of these home -- but the weight, not to mention the political factors, would make that impossible.

I wonder how they're selling in Ukraine, which has a decidedly love-hate relationship with Russia. For example, in Donestk, the city utility used billboards with Stalin's picture in an advertising campaign urging people to pay their electric bills. The backlash was so strong that this week, the campaign was pulled.

Also this week, President Yushchenko called for a law to make it a crime to deny the Holomodor, the Soviet-induced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33. The law also would apply to the Holocaust.