Calls for a return to ‘Stalingrad’ name test the limits of Putin’s Soviet nostalgia

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/09/calls-for-a-return-to-stalingrad-name-test-the-limits-of-putins-soviet-nostalgia/

Calls for a return to ‘Stalingrad’ name test the limits of Putin’s Soviet nostalgia

By Adam Taylor June 9

During 1942 and 1943, the Russian city of Volgograd saw some of the heaviest fighting on World War II's Eastern Front. It has been described as a crucial turning point in the war, ultimately destroying Nazi Germany's 6th Army, but leaving the city itself ruined and causing the death of as many as a million soldiers.

You might not be so familiar with the battles that rocked Volgograd, however. That's because the city's important role in 20th century history is associated with a different, much more famous name: Stalingrad, a name it adopted in 1925 at the behest of Joseph Stalin. Volgograd hasn't been called Stalingrad since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev renamed it to Volgograd in 1961, part of the "de-Stalinization" of the Soviet Union taking place at the time. Now a few words from Russian President Vladimir Putin have got everyone wondering if a return to Stalingrad could be in the cards.

On Friday, Putin was at meeting with veterans in Deauville, France, as part of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Asked what he thought about potentially renaming Volgograd, Putin expressed support for a referendum on a name change. "In this case, residents should hold a referendum where they will decide on it (the change of the name),” Putin said, according to Itar-Tass. “We'll do as the residents say.”

Though Putin's spokespeople have followed up with clarification that the president was only offering support for a referendum, not the renaming itself, and that official procedure would still have to be followed, the news has been taken by many as a sign of official approval. "Now that Putin has weighed in on this issue," Simon Saradzhyan, a research fellow at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, explains in an e-mail, "I'd expect efforts to rename the city to gain a new momentum, which could lead to re-appearance of Stalingrad on the map of Russia."
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