A statue of the tyrant was dumped in a dam in the Ural mountains 62 years ago – after the war leader was denounced by his Kremlin successor Nikita Khrushchev.

Recently, water was drained in the town of Kusa ahead of a repair of the dam – and the eerie image of the communist autocrat reappeared.

Locals at first thought the silt-covered concrete-and-metal effigy might have been a discarded memorial to an unknown soldier.

But a nearby museum confirmed the dictator’s towering statue – once in pride of place in a local park – had been disposed of in Kusa Pond after Khrushchev’s famous secret speech denouncing Stalin and his personality cult three years after his death.

Now, activists are calling for a referendum in a bid to restore the statue and place it back in a prominent position next to one of Lenin – the hero of the 1917 revolution.

(Image: WILL STEWART )

Viktoria Raspopova, curator of Kusinsky Museum, explained: “The story that the monument lay on the bottom of the pond was [previously] considered an urban legend.

“It is interesting that parts of the statue were found in different places, far from the shore where he stood.

“Perhaps it was taken out in winter and dropped into ice holes – in those years the frosts were very strong.”

Local photographer Andrey Parfenov said: “Part of the monument was discovered by my daughter Polina.

“At first I thought it was a statue of an unknown soldier.

“We called the museum and they then said it must be Stalin.”

(Image: WILL STEWART )

(Image: WILL STEWART )

The moustachioed monster is now in the possession of a group called The Essence of Time, who preserve Russian relics.

“The monument was broken and dismembered,” said activist Stanislav Stafeev.

“Now we are looking for the missing fragments – the right arm and a fragment of his hip.

“The feet are missing too – most likely, they left with the pedestal.”

They are hoping a lack of rain will dry the pond more quickly and Stalin’s missing parts will soon emerge.

Stafeev wants a local vote on whether Stalin should rise again and be placed next to a forlorn-looking statue of Lenin which still stands in Kusa’s main square.

“We will demand a referendum,” he said.

“Lenin is in a deplorable state. If we restore both Stalin and Lenin, why not show them off in the square together?”

(Image: GETTY )

Local officials say a more appropriate place for the effigy is in the local museum.

The park where Stalin once stood is now neglected.

It was on 25 February 1956 that Khrushchev denounced Stalin in a speech to a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

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Statues of the tyrant across the USSR were then torn down.

Modern historians see the Soviet war leader as responsible for bloody repressions which led to the deaths of tens of millions of people.