Volgograd installs bust of Stalin amid dispute over city renaming

Today, in Volgograd, busts of Joseph Stalin and Soviet Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky have been installed on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. According to the results of a survey conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (known as VTsIOM or VCIOM), 67% of city residents oppose the renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on November 19, 2022, Volgograd veterans of WWII proposed to Governor Andrei Bocharov to rename Volgograd to Stalingrad. The head of the region refused to fulfil the request of the war veterans until the opinion of the residents of the region was studied.

On December 5, 2022, the first meeting of the council for the study of public opinion on the return of the name of Stalingrad to Volgograd was held. There are much more pressing problems in the region than the renaming of the regional centre, users of the social media emphasize. After that, a petition against the return of the name of Stalingrad to Volgograd was published on the Internet. The Kremlin did not discuss the theme of renaming the city of Volgograd, states Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The bust of Joseph Stalin has been installed in Volgograd on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. The busts of Soviet Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky have also been installed next to the bust of Joseph Stalin, follows from the video posted on the “ChTD” Telegram channel.