Monday, September 3, 2018

Restoring Stalin’s Name to Main Street in Daghestan Port Said Act of ‘Historical Justice’


Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 2 – By a vote of 28 to two, residents of Kaspiisk have called on the mayor of their city to rename the main street of that Daghestani port for Stalin, an act they say would represent “the restoration of historical justice.” Anyone who dissents, they say, should simply go somewhere else. The city chief has two weeks to agree or not.

            Molodezh Dagestana reports that advocates of the change, members of the Stalin Socio-Political Organization, note the city’s Peace Street earlier was called Stalin Street, and some said that Stalin bore no responsibility for mass repressions. That was the work of “local people,” they say and advise opponents of the change to simply move away (md-gazeta.ru/news/54048).

            Backers of this change, the republic newspaper says, do face one obstacle: Kaspiisk, where Moscow plans to relocate its Caspian flotilla, already has a Stalin Street. But it isn’t an important thoroughfare, and advocates of renaming the main street in honor of the Soviet dictator say that this problem can be solved by giving the other street a different name.

            Stalin’s name still graces the names of some two dozen cities and towns in Russia, Meduza reports, although it is rare for any of them to have two Stalin streets at the same time (meduza.io/news/2018/09/02/ne-nravitsya-pereezzhay-na-obschestvennyh-slushaniyah-v-kaspiyske-reshili-pereimenovat-ulitsu-mira-v-chest-stalina).

            Meanwhile, another Russian has proposed another change in names. Roman Popkov, a Moscow blogger, says that “in a beautiful Russia of the future, streets will be named for Fanya Kaplan, the woman who unsuccessfully sought to assassinate Vladimir Lenin on August 30, 2918 (t.me/roman_popkov/1026).

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