For more than 300 years, the Russian city of Volgograd was known as Tsaritsyn. It was dubbed Stalingrad in honor of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for a mere 26 years, before his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, dropped that name as part of his campaign to dismantle the personality cult of the former dictator.
Now the city may become Stalingrad once again, after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed holding a referendum to change its name amid a wave of World War II-fueled Russian patriotism linked to tensions in eastern Ukraine.
When asked by a Soviet veteran during D-Day commemorations in Normandy on Friday last week, Putin promised to help the city’s residents vote on bringing back the Stalingrad name.
“It wasn’t I who canceled that,” Putin told the veterans.
On Sunday, Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin also spoke out in favor of a referendum.
“The word Stalingrad already has a life of its own, independent of the name Stalin. It is associated with the victory in a famous battle, with a certain part of our history,” Chaplin said, news agency Interfax reported.
Several other prominent Russian politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Communist Party leader and MP Gennady Zyuganov, were quick to put their weight behind the possible name change. However, Putin’s support is what is likely to move the initiative forward in Volgograd, one of Russia’s largest cities with more than 1 million people.
Last year, several politicians called for a referendum on the name Stalingrad on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the battle there, which stopped the Nazi advance into the then-Soviet Union and stands as one of the bloodiest battles of all time, with an estimated 2 million total casualties.
The Russian Citizens’ Union turned in more than 50,000 signatures in favor of renaming the city, but local politicians and Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, turned down the idea.
Meanwhile, the Volgograd city council voted to use the name Stalingrad on nine annual holidays connected with World War II.
However, outside veterans and pensioners, few seem to support bringing back the war-era name. A poll by the independent Levada Center in 2012 found that 18 percent of respondents were for renaming the city Stalingrad, but 60 percent were against the switch.
Volgograd City Council Deputy Alexei Volotskov said three out of four residents asked in a local poll were against returning the name.
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