Stalingrad name may return to city in wave of second world war patriotism | World | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/08/stalingrad-name-may-return-to-russian-city
For more than 300 years, the Russian city of Volgograd was known as Tsaritsyn. It was dubbed Stalingrad in honour of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for a mere 26 years, but then his successor Nikita Khrushchev dropped that name as part of his campaign to dismantle the personality cult of the former dictator.
Now the city may become Stalingrad once again after president Vladimir Putin proposed holding a referendum to change the name amid a wave of second world war patriotism over eastern Ukraine. When asked by a Soviet veteran during D-day commemorations in Normandy on Friday, Putin promised to help the city’s residents vote on bringing back the Stalingrad name. “It wasn’t me who canceled that,” Putin told the veterans.
