When Russia’s Culture Minister and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church unveiled their new memorial statue to Mikhail Kalashnikov which came along with millimetrically-accurate outlines of all of Kalashnikov’s world-class killing machines, it was soon pointed out that the sculptor had included, in amongst all of the AK-47’s variants, a perfect replica outline of a German StG 44 machine gun, designed in 1944.
Moscow-based military historian Yuri Pasholok revealed Thursday in a Facebook post that the rifle diagram etched into the plate is an exact replica of the diagram for the StG rifle. “Just don’t say that this was an accident,” Pasholok wrote. “One should be beaten, painfully and publicly, for something like this. These are boy-sculptors, dammit!”
Scherbakov acknowledged the discrepancy the same day, admitting that it was a mistake. “This is a very small background thing,” the sculptor was quoted saying by the RBC news outlet. “I even wonder how they noticed it. We took [the image] from a source where it was written ‘Kalashnikov assault rifle.”
So, the grinding wheels came out pretty quick, the sculptor was suitably advised to get his weaponry library overhauled; or something very similar; the offending StG machine pistol disappeared, the mistake was acknowledged, and the world shrugged and moved on.
I bet Rochdale Council wished it could as easily erase the past events which spread over two decades with the allegations of abuse at Knowl View School and Cambridge House Hostel: allegations which, despite the mounting list of allegations against both staff members and the late Cyril Smith MP, the CPS decided that there would be no further actions, and the case files were closed: a decision which even the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd called ‘shameful’. Rochdale Council have ‘apologised’; but Richard Scorer, a solicitor for some of the the victims, claimed the independent inquiry which opens on 9 October and will examine abuse allegations about Cambridge House and Knowl View, is the real reason for the apology.
So Rochdale adds yet another place-name to the sordid list; upon which one commentator stated:- If the List gets any longer, Prof. Jay will probably be the first Centenarian Inquiry Leader.