Check for Stalingrad – Newspaper Kommersant No. 52 (7497) of 03/28/2023

In Volgograd starts a public opinion poll on the possibility of holding a city referendum on the renaming of the city to Stalingrad. As the chairman of the Volgograd Council of Veterans, Alexander Strukov, told Kommersant, within a week, social activists intend to hold meetings with “labor collectives”, following which a decision will be made on submitting documents to the election commission. The expert believes that the referendum will certainly be initiated, but its outcome is still unpredictable.

Since the beginning of this week, meetings of social activists are planned in Volgograd, at which the issue of renaming the city to Stalingrad will be discussed. This was reported to Kommersant by Alexander Strukov, Chairman of the Volgograd City Council of Veterans. “From Monday, we begin to meet with organizations and labor collectives. Then there will be a decision whether to hold a referendum in the city,” he explained.

It is assumed that meetings of public activists will be held within a week, then documents on holding a referendum can be submitted to the election commission.

The public council for studying the opinion of residents on the renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad was created in December last year, it was headed by Mr. Strukov. In addition to him, as reported in the press service of the regional administration, the new council included representatives of parties, public associations, trade unions and communities, enterprises and organizations, educational institutions and experts.

The Governor of the Volgograd Region Andrey Bocharov then said that on the day of the 80th anniversary of the start of the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad (November 19), the front-line soldiers spoke in favor of “returning to the city of Volgograd the name of the legendary unconquered Stalingrad – a symbol of courage and heroism of the multinational people of our Motherland in the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second world war.” In this regard, Mr. Bocharov said that the public council “needs to conduct a qualitative, comprehensive preliminary study of public opinion” of the inhabitants of the Volgograd region on the possible renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad.

The issue of renaming Volgograd was already raised in 2013. Then the leader of the Communist Party faction in the Regional Duma Nikolai Parshin insistedthat the return of the name of Stalingrad to the city is “correct from a legal and historical point of view.” The Communists even planned to apply to the Supreme Court with a claim to invalidate the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1961 on the renaming of Stalingrad to Volgograd, but they did not. In 2021, Zakhar Prilepin, co-chairman of the Just Russia – For Truth party, spoke about renaming: at a press conference in Volgograd, he called the return of the city to its former name “an application for a super-breakthrough, for the construction of new socialism.”

Recallthat, in accordance with the decision of the Volgograd City Duma of 2013, Volgograd is officially renamed Stalingrad for nine days a year: February 2 (the day of the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad), February 23 (Defender of the Fatherland Day), May 8 and 9 ( the day of the surrender of Germany and the Day of Victory in the Great Patriotic War), June 22 (Day of memory and sorrow), August 23 (the day of the first massive air bombardment of Stalingrad), September 3 (the day the Second World War ended), November 19 (the day the defeat of the Nazi troops began near Stalingrad) and December 9 (Heroes of the Fatherland Day).

In early February 2023, busts of Joseph Stalin, Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky (chief of the general staff during this battle) were opened near the Stalingrad Battle panorama museum in Volgograd as part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. Around the same time, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that “there are no discussions in the presidential administration on the topic of renaming Volgograd,” and “a published VTsIOM poll says that the majority of residents do not share this point of view.”

According to this surveyheld on January 31, 2023 among 600 Volgograd residents, 67% of the townspeople “rather do not support” the renaming to Stalingrad.

Among the reasons for this attitude, 21% of respondents named large financial costs, 12% “do not see the point in it”, 11% believe that “there is no need to live in the past”, 7% have a negative attitude towards Stalin and 6% are used to the current name of the city. 26% of Volgograd residents supported the renaming, another 7% found it difficult to answer.

Volgograd political scientist Konstantin Glushenok believes that, judging by how active both supporters and opponents of the renaming are, the process will definitely reach a referendum. However, the result of the will is unpredictable and will depend on how the parties campaign, the expert suggests. The authorities, according to his estimates, generally remain neutral. “Of course, the authorities of the region cannot but participate in the process, but this is the unique case when they do not directly influence it,” Mr. Glushenok believes.

Sergey Petunin, Saratov