Russia Considers Renaming a City in Honor of Stalin

From 1925 until 1961, the Russian city of Volgograd was known as Stalingrad. Now, it may be known as Stalingrad once more.

By Braden Bjella

Published 2 months ago in Wow

Russians have a complicated relationship with Stalin. Sure, he led the Soviet Union to victory in World War II, but on the flip side, you can only make so many political enemies disappear before history starts to look on you as one of the baddies.

The latter culture of fear, paired with a cult of personality, is one of the reasons why the Soviet Union decided to de-Stalinize after his death. Now, however, with around 70 percent of polled Russians approving of Stalin’s role in Russian history (per a 2019 survey), the country seems ready to re-Stalinize — starting with the city of Volgograd.

While the idea has been floated a few times in the past, and they’ve already renamed the airport to “Stalingrad International Airport,” the commitment to actually doing this hasn’t really been there.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated that, essentially, if the people in the city want it, he’s down to change the name — so long as they’re able to do so without getting bogged down in politics.

“In general, everything related to the Great Patriotic War and Stalin’s role in the victory must be kept in mind, and efforts must be made to depoliticize it,” he said. He added that, while there were problems with Stalin’s regime, “it is also unfair to forget the role this particular individual played in the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War.”

In short, “Yeah, we can rename the city in honor of Stalin — but please don’t bring politics into it!”