A legal framework is being prepared for Stalingrad

On Thursday, the Volgograd Regional Duma plans to adopt amendments opening up the possibility of renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad through a regional referendum. Local authorities have been publicly raising the issue of changing the name for more than a year, but this is the first time they have taken practical action in this direction. According to Kommersant’s sources, Governor Andrei Bocharov has not yet made a final decision on the feasibility of the referendum. Experts warn that persistence on this issue could lead to unexpected consequences for the authorities.

On November 30, at a meeting of the Volgograd Regional Duma, amendments to the regional law on the administrative-territorial structure will be considered. Their co-authors were Duma Speaker Alexander Bloshkin, his first deputy Sergei Bulgakov and the leaders of four factions Mikhail Struk (United Russia), Tamara Golovacheva (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Dmitry Kalashnikov (SZRP) and Alexey Loginov (LDPR), which virtually guarantees the adoption of the project.

The document clarifies the mechanism for renaming settlements through identifying the opinions of citizens. Among the reasons for this is the possibility of “returning to individual settlements names that are widely known in the past and present.” With regard to municipal facilities, the issue will be resolved at a local plebiscite, but to rename Volgograd (until 1925 – the city of Tsaritsyn), the referendum must be regional. In this case, the regional Duma will have to inform residents about the costs this will entail.

The amendment procedure itself is somewhat more complicated. Changing the name of the regional capital is possible only in accordance with the federal law “On the Name of Geographical Objects,” that is, a decision of the federal government upon the proposal of the legislative assembly of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. But first, the regional Duma must hold a referendum, following which the city authorities will again appeal to the Duma, and the latter will receive the right (and not the obligation) to appeal to the federal authorities.

The explanatory note states that the project was developed to bring regional legislation into line with federal legislation, but the document itself contains a reference only to the order of Rosreestr, which clarifies the procedure for registering and accounting for the names of geographical objects. The procedure for changing their names is not mentioned in the order.

Regional Duma Speaker Alexander Bloshkin is considered the main lobbyist for the idea of ​​​​renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad. It was at his instigation that such an initiative was put forward by veterans and other organizations, which created a public council in December 2022. At the beginning of February 2023, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the issue of returning Stalin’s name to Volgograd “is not being discussed in the Kremlin,” after which the activity of the council decreased. However, on November 17, Mr. Bloshkin reported that supporters of the renaming “conducted independent, objective sociology and there were more and more people in favor.”

What kind of sociology this is and how many people are now “for”, the speaker did not specify. According to previous surveys, from 66% to 72% of Volgograd residents are against the renaming. However, we are talking specifically about the townspeople, while the new initiative of the regional Duma will give the opportunity to speak out on this matter to all residents of the region (the population of the region is 2.47 million people, Volgograd – about 1 million people). Vice-Speaker Kalashnikov (NWRP) calls this approach fair, since many people registered in the region work or study in Volgograd, and this city is unique to all residents of the region. “The referendum has not been announced, we are only creating a mechanism to make it legitimate,” the deputy clarified.

According to experts, by involving all residents of the region in the renaming, its supporters hope to ensure the desired result. “They believe that they will be able to mobilize the indifferent electorate in the cities of the region. And residents of Volgograd traditionally show lower turnout,” political scientist Alexander Saigin explains this logic. But the answer could be a “protective mobilization” of citizens with active campaigning and a willingness to control the vote count, the expert warns: “Officials have every chance of getting a kind of Battle of Stalingrad in this way.”

The head of the Political Expert Group, former vice-mayor of Volgograd Konstantin Kalachev also sees “the possibility of sharp politicization”: “Volgograd should not vote for renaming Uryupinsk or Kikvidze, but here they are trying to drive a wedge between the city and the village.” But those who convince Governor Bocharov to push through the renaming in order to please the Kremlin are starting from a false premise, the expert is sure: “Textbooks and historical forums are one thing, but bringing history into the present is another.”

Yaroslav Malykh, Volgograd