Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 19 – Angelika Glazkova, a KPRF Duma deputy has put forward a bill to restore the names Leningrad and Stalingrad to Russian cities now called St. Petersburg and Volgagrad. The last time the Duma took up and rejected restoring the name Stalingrad to Volgagrad was in 2015. It has not before considered a bill to restore the name Leningrad.
Communist Party officials have frequently called for such moves, but only rarely have these calls led to the introduction of bills in the Duma that would achieve that end. Moreover, Glazkova has a poor track record of winning support for her ideas: Only 17 of the 57 bills she has put forward have been approved (agents.media/v-gosdumu-vnesli-zakonoproekt-o-pereimenovanii-sankt-peterburga-v-leningrad/).
But Putin’s promotion of the restoration of the Soviet and Russian past and especially his focus on World War II may mean that this time around, a bill that would restore the name Stalingrad will have a better chance of passage, perhaps especially because it is linked to a change in the name of the northern capital rather than being a stand alone measure.
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