(FORTUNE Magazine) – History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as infotainment. That's one lesson of the Grutas Sculpture Park of Soviet Statues--or "Stalin's World," as many people refer to this Lithuanian oddity. Built on swampland 90 miles southwest of the capital, Vilnius, the park has drawn more than 100,000 visitors since opening in April, making it one of Lithuania's biggest tourist attractions.

For the price of a bottle of beer, visitors can see the old Soviet Union from a safe distance. Dozens of statues of such luminaries as Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and KGB leader Felix Dzerzhinsky decorate the verdant park. They were saved from the dustbin by Stalin's World founder, Vilumas Malinauskas, a 60-year-old former wrestler turned mushroom tycoon, who bought them from the government in an auction in 1998. "It's important that future generations don't forget the history of our nation."

The result? Set against a backdrop of Soviet-era military tunes that are similar in rhythm to German drinking songs, these monuments to the makers of the Evil Empire seem harmless, perhaps even faintly ridiculous. But that's not the biggest surprise of Stalin's World. It turns out that the food at the Gulag restaurant isn't nearly as wretched as one might expect.

--Vijai Maheshwari