In an effort to perpetuate the memory of party comrades, the leaders of the Soviet state in the twenties of the last century began to rename cities and towns. And in the names of the settlements appeared numerous names of Lenin, Stalin, Sverdlov, Kirov. Later, Izhevsk turned into Ustinov, Rybinsk into Andropov, and Naberezhnye Chelny into Brezhnev. This fate did not pass the ancient city of Tsaritsyn, which changed its name even twice - to Stalingrad and Volgograd. And not so long ago a project appeared and the third renaming.
"Decisions of the XXII Congress - to life!"
Formally, the decision to rename the newly rebuilt Stalingrad to Volgograd was made by the Central Committee of the CPSU "at the request of the working people" on November 10, 1961, only a week and a half after the completion of the XXII Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow. But in fact, it turned out to be quite logical for those times to continue the anti-Stalinist campaign unfolding at the main party forum. The apotheosis of which was the removal of Stalin's body from the Mausoleum, secret from the people and even most of the party. And the hasty reburial of the now former and not at all terrible general secretary at the Kremlin wall - late at night, without the obligatory speeches, flowers, honor guard and salute in such cases.
It is curious that in adopting such a state decision, none of the Soviet leaders dared to declare its necessity and importance personally, from the rostrum of the same congress. Including the head of state and party Nikita Khrushchev. Ivan Spiridonov, a modest party official, secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee, who was soon safely dismissed, was instructed to “voice” the leading opinion.
One of the numerous decisions of the Central Committee, designed to completely eliminate the consequences of the so-called personality cult, was the renaming of all the settlements previously named after Stalin - the Ukrainian Stalin (now Donetsk), the Tajik Stalinabad (Dushanbe), the Georgian-Ossetian Stalinir (Tskhinvali), German Stalinstadt (Eisenhüttenstadt), Russian Stalin (Novokuznetsk) and the hero city of Stalingrad. Moreover, the latter received not the historical name Tsaritsyn, but, without further ado, was named in honor of the river flowing in it - Volgograd. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Tsaritsyn could remind people of the not so long ago times of the monarchy.
The decision of the party leaders was not even affected by the historical fact that the name of the key battle in the Great Patriotic War of the Stalingrad battle passed from the past to the present. And what the whole world calls the city where it occurred at the turn of 1942 and 1943, namely Stalingrad. At the same time, focusing not on the names of the late Generalissimo and Commander-in-Chief, but on the truly steel courage and heroism of the Soviet soldiers who defended the city and defeated the Nazis.
Not in honor of the kings
The earliest historical mention of the city on the Volga is dated July 2, 1589. And his first name was Tsaritsyn. The opinions of historians on this subject, by the way, differ. Some of them believe that it came from the Turkic phrase Sary-chin (in translation - Yellow Island). Others indicate that the Tsaritsa River flowed close to the 16th-century border archery settlement. But both of them converged in one thing: to the tsarina, and indeed to the monarchy, the name has no special relationship. Consequently, in 1961, Stalingrad could well be returned to its former name.
Stalin was angry?
Historical documents of the early Soviet times indicate that the initiator of the renaming of Tsaritsyn to Stalingrad, which happened on April 10, 1925, was not Joseph Stalin himself and not one of the communists of a lower leadership level, but ordinary citizens of the city, an impersonal public. Like, in this way the workers and intellectuals wanted to thank "dear Joseph Vissarionovich" for participating in the defense of Tsaritsyn during the Civil War. They say that Stalin, learning about the initiative of the townspeople after the fact, as if expressed even displeasure on this occasion. However, he did not cancel the decision of the City Council. And soon thousands of settlements, streets, football teams and enterprises named after the “leader of the peoples” appeared in the USSR.
