Volgograd to be renamed Stalingrad

DaveyCakes

..on 6 days per year. The city council has voted that the city will be referred to as Stalingrad at official events on

February 2nd: The anniversary of the end of the battle
May 9: Victory Day
June 22: The anniversary of the German invasion
August 23: Day of commemoration for victims of first Luftwaffe raids
September 2: The anniversary of the end of WW2
November 19: The anniversary of the start of Operation Uranus

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/volgograd-to-be-stalingrad-on-military-holidays/474858.html

Cue controversy!

jonniebgood1

I can see the point in this when looking at the cities survival through WWII. Russian histories credit the citizens of the city with additional bravery due to the city carrying Stalin's name. The personality cult which had been built up by Stalin cannot be ignored in this context. However the decision does seem to ignore everything else about Stalin excluding WWII. I can see some logic in the renaming although I can also see why people might argue against it.

jmayo

It sounds like a marketing ploy to try and entice people to visit the city.
Someone somewhere is banking on WWII enthusiasts and Stalin fans wanting to be able to say they have been in Stalingrad.

As for the idea that the reason the defenders fought so hard was because the city was named after Stalin, I think they didn't really have a choice.
There is no way Stalin was going to let Hitler capture it and there was no way Hitler was going to give up on it.
Neither gave a damm how many soldiers or indeed civilians died.

jonniebgood1

jmayo wrote: »

It sounds like a marketing ploy to try and entice people to visit the city.
Someone somewhere is banking on WWII enthusiasts and Stalin fans wanting to be able to say they have been in Stalingrad.

As for the idea that the reason the defenders fought so hard was because the city was named after Stalin, I think they didn't really have a choice.
There is no way Stalin was going to let Hitler capture it and there was no way Hitler was going to give up on it.
Neither gave a damm how many soldiers or indeed civilians died.

The highlighted section would seem to be partly the reason why the people of Volvograd seem to want to remember the war under the former name.

jmayo

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

The highlighted section would seem to be partly the reason why the people of Volvograd seem to want to remember the war under the former name.

Most people would have heard of Stalingrad so can see why they want the name change.
Has anyone ever tried to rename back to it's original name Tsaritsyn ?

BTW for a moment there I thought they had renamed after a Swedish car company.
Did the Swedes ever get that far south ?

BlaasForRafa

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

The highlighted section would seem to be partly the reason why the people of Volvograd seem to want to remember the war under the former name.

The people that inhabit Volgograd now are mostly imports, very few have roots in the city going back as far as the war. Stalin forced the former inhabitants of Stalingrad to stay there during the battle and forbade any evacuation of civilians, the death toll that he caused was horrendous, so there's practically no-one left to be repulsed by this suggestion.

jmayo

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

The people that inhabit Volgograd now are mostly imports, very few have roots in the city going back as far as the war. Stalin forced the former inhabitants of Stalingrad to stay there during the battle and forbade any evacuation of civilians, the death toll that he caused was horrendous, so there's practically no-one left to be repulsed by this suggestion.

I think that is exactly the point, the people had no choice but fight.
I don't believe there was ever this great adoration for Stalin or this great personality cult that meant ordinary people were willing to readily die for him, there was just fear plain and simple.
And then add in the fact that the Germans were utter bast**ds to the Russians, Slavs and other Eastern ethnic groups.

La_Gordy

I used to live in Russia and I can see that this story isn't really featuring on Russian Facebook (vkontakte) or provoking much discussion. Obviously for the West it's shocking to see anything that seems to venerate Stalin, but Russians are extremely proud of their WW2 efforts. Den pobedy - Victory Day, is one of the biggest celebrations in Russia, it's a great day. I can't imagine that many of them being offended by 6 days of Volgograd being called Stalingrad.