The Central Children’s Store in Moscow can’t seem to do anything right these days. Even before it’s grand opening at Lubyanka, the toy store came under criticism for advertisements making light of the KGB’s brutal legacy. (Read Meduza's story on this here.) Now the store is in trouble again after putting up for sale a line of Nazi memorabilia.
On April 3, the Russian state-controlled television channel Vesti ran a scathing report about the peculiar toys, accusing the store of supporting fascist propaganda and insulting veterans just a month before the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in WWII.
Vesti’s report includes several awkward videos with disturbed veterans and confused toy store employees. At one moment, the station’s reporters corner a sales clerk and grill him about the ethics of selling Nazi-themed toys.
“No, it doesn’t bother me. We should know our history. There was a war,” the young man says to the camera.
“A Sturmbannführer in the SS—that’s your history?” the news crew asked.
“Our history—this is our history.”
“You said we need to know our history. I’ll ask you again: a Sturmbannführer in the SS—colonel Otto Skorzeny—this is your history?”
“No, it’s not personally my history.”
Yekaterina Nikitina, the manager on duty at the store, told Vesti that she saw no problem with selling the Nazi figurines, before cutting the interview short, saying her comments hadn’t been sanctioned by the store's owners.
In 2014, Russia enacted a ban on “rehabilitating Nazism.” Those convicted face fines of up to 300,000 rubles (about $5,200) or prison terms of up to 3 years.
Interior Ministry Lieutenant Colonel Igor Anisimov came here to buy his son some Red Army figurines for the 70th anniversary of Victory Day. Instead, he was greeted by a bunch of fascists, all waiting in a little parade.
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