July 23, 2023

What's in a Name? Stalin.


What's in a Name? Stalin.
"The Motherland Calls," a monument in the Russian city that used to be called Stalingrad. The Russian Life files.

The government of Volgograd, the city famed as the former StalBattle of Stalingradingrad, has added September 3 to the roster of days when it takes on its old Soviet name.

According to the city duma in a July 19 press release, this new date marks "the day of victory over militaristic Japan and the end of World War II." On September 3, city signs will be changed to "Stalingrad" as a nod to the Soviet past.

This is not the first temporary renaming that Volgograd has adopted. Since 2022, nine other dates throughout the year have been selected as annual times when the city goes by Stalingrad, including May 9, Russia's main patriotic holiday.

Volgograd was founded as Tsaritsyn in the sixteenth century. However, in 1924, the Soviet government changed the city's name to Stalingrad to honor the USSR's new general secretary. In 1961, during de-Stalinization, the name was changed to Volgograd, after the Volga River which runs through it,

During World War II, Stalingrad was the site of the largest battles in human history, in which nearly 2 million lost their lives as Nazi Germany obliterated the city while trying to take it.

Later in the war, in August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Germany's ally Japan and invaded Manchuria, attacking from the north and west as the US and Western allies fought in the Pacific. The war ended less than a month later, with Japan's surrender.

The choice to adopt renaming days for Volgograd comes amid a surge in Russian patriotism as the war in Ukraine wears on.

You Might Also Like

Stalin Returns to Volgograd
  • February 05, 2023

Stalin Returns to Volgograd

A new bust of Stalin has been erected in Volgograd, raising questions about the identity of the city.
Battle of Stalingrad
  • January 01, 1998

Battle of Stalingrad

One million Russia lives were lost, but, Hitler was turned back and Russia can be credited with changing the tide of WWII in Europe.
Women Combat Aviators of the Patriotic War
  • August 08, 2000

Women Combat Aviators of the Patriotic War

Told that the Rodina was not in so bad a shape that she needed girls to protect her, these future heroes were sent home to their mothers.  Soon, they were called back and became a crucial element in the protection of their homeland and victory over Nazi Germany.
A Patriotic Statement Piece
  • June 30, 2022

A Patriotic Statement Piece

Russian schools have been given a billion rubles to purchase state symbols to decorate their walls.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955