The people “will understand” its significance if the city of Volgograd reverts to its WWII-era name, Gennady Zyuganov has said
The leader of the Russian Communist Party (CPRF), Gennady Zyuganov, has called for the city of Volgograd to be renamed Stalingrad to properly mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
The city, which was known as Stalingrad from 1925 to 1961, became the venue for one of the fiercest battles of WWII, which historians believe changed the course of the conflict in the Soviet Union’s favor and paved the way for the ultimate defeat of the Nazis.
Addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday, Zyuganov stressed that “we have 80 years of victory ahead of us. I call on everyone once again” to make sure that Volgograd has its “true name” returned to it.
If the city of 860,000 is not re-branded as Stalingrad before May 9, when Victory Day is celebrated in Russia, then MPs should fly there and make sure it happens, he insisted.
During World War II, Soviet troops “fought for Stalingrad and got their medals for it too,” the Communist leader explained.
The Russian people “will understand everything” if Stalingrad is back on the map, Zyuganov insisted. “We must mark this holiday properly,” he added.
Volgograd was originally called Tsaritsyn, taking its name from the island where Russian troops built a fort during the 16th century. Due to the name’s association with the monarchy, the Bolshevik government rebranded the city in honor of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1925.
The USSR’s next leader, Nikita Khrushchev, changed the name to Volgograd after the nearby Volga river in 1961 as part of his “de-Stalinization” campaign. Since 1991, multiple petitions have been launched to revert the name to either Tsaritsyn or Stalingrad.
There have been at least two big campaigns to restore the name Stalingrad. One was spearheaded by the Communist Party in 2013, while another emerged in 2021 and was backed by the party ‘A Just Russia – For Truth’. Over the past decade, Volgograd has used the name during events commemorating war victims as a token of respect.
A 2023 study by state-owned pollster VTSIOM showed some 67% of the city’s residents were skeptical of the name change and wanted to keep living in Volgograd.
