Young and old, big and small cities influenced by certain historical events tend to change their name. Sometimes names change more than once, and not so rarely the first name of a city returns after a change again. We will look at 10 such Russian cities and talk about the events that preceded the renaming.
The most famous cities in Russia that changed their name:
1. St. Petersburg
From 1703 to 1914 the city was called St. Petersburg. The city was called Petrograd for only 10 years and in 1924, after the death of Lenin, it was renamed Leningrad. The city bore the name in honor of Lenin until 1991, when its historical name returned.
2. Sochi
1838 - Fort Alexandria, a year later - Navaginsky fortification. In 1964, the city was named Post Dakhovsky, and 10 years later - Dakhovsky Posad. Modern name The city has been named since 1896 in honor of the Sochi River.
3. Volgograd
Tsaritsyn has been the name of the city since 1589. Since 1925 it was renamed in honor of Stalin to Stalingrad. At the request of the workers, the city was renamed again in 1961, the name being tied to the Volga River flowing nearby.
4. Tolyatti
This city was founded in 1737 and was called Stavropol or Stavropol-on-Volga. Renamed in 1964 and began to bear the name of the Italian Communist Party Secretary Palmiro Togliatti.
5. Kaliningrad
In 1946, the German city of Königsberg became a Soviet city and was renamed Kaliningrad in honor of party leader Mikhail Kalinin. The city had its first name back in 1225.
6. Makhachkala
In 1844, the Petrovskoye fortification was founded; since 1857, the settlement began to be called Port-Petrovsk or the port city of Petrovsk in honor of Peter I. In 1918, the city was renamed Shamil-Kala, in honor folk hero Dagestan Shamil, and the city was named Makhachkala in 1921, in honor of another Dagestan - Makhach Dakhadaev.
7. Kirov
1181 – the settlement of Khlynov was formed. In 1347 it was renamed Vyatka, 110 years later - again to Khlynov, and from 1780 to 1934 the city was called Vyatka. In December 1934, the city was renamed in honor of the revolutionary and Leninist Sergei Mironovich Kirov (Kostrikov).
8. Novosibirsk
The settlement was first named in honor of the emperor. Alexandra III and the village of Alexandrovsky began to be called, and a year later - the village of Novo-Nikolaevsky, in honor of the new Tsar Nicholas II. Since 1903, the village became the city of Novonikolaevsk, and since 1925 - Novosibirsk.
9. Yoshkar-Ola
Like most cities in Russia, at first there was a first name (Tsarevokokshaysk, 1584), then with the arrival Soviet power the city changes its name (Krasnokokshaysk, 1918). And the city usually receives its third name in the middle or at the end of the 20th century. Yoshkar-Ola received this name in 1927.
10. Syktyvkar
The original name is associated with the place where the mouth of the Sysola River is located. The city had the name Ust-Sysolsk from 1780 to 1930. The new name has not changed its meaning, since Syktyvkar is translated from the local language as “city on Sysol” (“Syktyv” - “Sysola”, “kar” - “about”).
Many cities changed their names only during the Soviet period: Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky), Vladikavkaz (Ordzhonikidze, Dzadzhikau), Orenburg (Chkalov), Perm (Molotov), Samara (Kuibyshev), Tver (Kalinin), Elista (Stepnoy) and others. Basically, the renaming was in honor of writers and political figures. Sometimes names were changed only because the cities were named after Russian monarchs, whom the Soviet regime hated. Many historical names were returned in the 1990s after the collapse of the USSR.
The new trend started in Krasnodar, where the head of the city, Vladimir Evlanov, speaking with his annual report, invited residents to return the historical name of Ekaterinodar to the capital of Kuban. Then Russian President Vladimir Putin received a proposal from one of the Great Patriotic War veterans to make Volgograd Stalingrad again. A Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov He liked this initiative so much that he immediately spoke out in favor of renaming St. Petersburg back to Leningrad.
"AiF" decided to remember how Russian cities changed their names and which of them may soon be included in new fashion for renaming.
Travel from St. Petersburg to St. Petersburg
Without a doubt, St. Petersburg is considered the most experienced among Russian cities in terms of renaming. Founded in the 18th century, it changed its name for the first time 200 years later - in 1914, on the wave of anti-German sentiment (the first World War). And it began to be called Petrograd. This name was not new - it was used in some works by Alexander Pushkin. However, it did not take root well as the official name of the city.
However, it did not last long: the next renaming happened exactly 10 years later, when Russia became a country of the Soviets. The name Petrograd disappeared after Lenin's death - in 1924, by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the city was given a new name - Leningrad. The Central Committee of the Party invested in this hasty (three days after Lenin's death) renaming a deep symbolic meaning - if St. Petersburg bore the name of the monarch, then Leningrad would throw away the tsarist past and strive for the bright future prepared by Lenin during the October Revolution.
The new name lasted 70 years. Another epochal turning point has occurred in history northern capital and the entire country in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The opinions of residents were divided almost equally: some would rather forget the “scoop”, while others, having lived their entire lives in Leningrad, did not want to part with the past. It is interesting that the decree on the renaming was signed despite a microscopic majority of votes - 54% of the townspeople were in favor of changing the name in the referendum.
St. Petersburg has changed its name more than once, but there are still new proposals to rename the northern capital. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
But the Leningrad region remained. Just like the entry in the passports of old-timers in the column « place of birth" - Leningrad.
If not Ekaterinodar, then Ekaterinodar District
The capital of Kuban can be considered the most « stubborn » in the matter of renaming. On the one hand, the authorities of the city and region return to this problem with enviable regularity, on the other hand, the majority of Krasnodar residents stubbornly reject the initiative every time.
On June 30, 1792, Catherine II issued Black Sea to the Cossack army Certificate of Complaint, according to which she handed over to the Cossacks Kuban land for eternal possession. It is not surprising that it was decided to name the first city founded on the new territory in honor of the empress - Ekaterinodar. The name lasted 127 years until it caused strong displeasure of the Soviet authorities.
The decision to rename Ekaterinodar to Krasnodar was brewing, says Doctor of Historical Sciences Valery Kasyanov. - Catherine II, thanks to the reforms and transformations carried out, enjoyed special respect among the Cossacks. Moreover, they received these lands as a gift from her. It is clear that the Bolsheviks did not like this, and they tried to denigrate her - they called her an immoral, riotous “German on the throne.” Surely the name of the city irritated them.
And then the Kuban-Black Sea Revolutionary Committee sent a telegram to Moscow asking for a rename. No one bothered to ask the city residents. That’s how the residents of Ekaterinodar woke up in Krasnodar right on New Year’s Eve 1920. They were informed that the renaming had taken place in the latest issue of the Krasnoe Znamya newspaper.
Talk about changing the name logically arose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 90s, they even staged one in Krasnodar, but the majority then spoke out against it. In 2014, the idea was returned to, as they say in the Krasnodar administration, after appeals from some public activists. The initiative arose in the wake of patriotism associated with the return of Crimea to Russia.
Social polls again showed that the majority of Krasnodar residents do not want a new name, but they are reminded of Ekaterinodar every day by monograms on sidewalk fences. Photo: AiF-South / Alina Menkova
This time, the Krasnodar authorities decided not to step on the centuries-old rake and, to begin with, carried out opinion polls. As a result, more than 60% of townspeople again spoke out against the renaming. However, during the discussions, an alternative idea unexpectedly emerged. Do not rename the entire city, but create a fifth intra-city district, calling it Ekaterinodar.
The proposal is very sensible, because over the years the Kuban capital has grown significantly, and unevenly. The Kubansky district, for example, is equal in area to all the other three districts combined. We have already discussed the future redistricting of districts at meetings. And, indeed, why not give the new formation the name Ekaterinodar? - says Evgeniy Pervyshov, Deputy Head of Krasnodar for Municipal Affairs, Fuel and Energy Complex and Housing Issues.
An alternative idea is currently under discussion. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is already following a similar path. In 1221, the settlement was called Novgorod Nizovsky, then it became Nizhny Novgorod, in Soviet time was Gorky, and in the 90s he returned the best of his titles. So now names in the city are changed purely locally. For example, soon one of the main squares of Nizhny (Lyadov Square) will return to its ancient name - Krestovozdvizhenskaya. Also on the old-new square a bust of Nizhny Novgorod merchant Nikolai Bugrov, a monument in honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and a memorial “Gateway to Old Nizhny” will be erected.
Tsaritsyn - Volgograd - Stalingrad?
“Even if you call it a pot, just don’t put it in the oven” - this folk saying Many residents of the city on the Volga, who have already experienced one renaming, are not to their hearts. Heated debate resumed after Russian President Vladimir Putin received a proposal from one of the Russian veterans to rename Volgograd Stalingrad.
However, the president did not advise getting excited.
In accordance with our law, this is a matter for the subject of the federation and the municipality, - Putin commented. - In this case, residents must hold a referendum, decide, as the residents say, we will do so.
Meanwhile, the current proposal to rename is not the first: such initiatives arise regularly, and, as a rule, it is the Soviet name of the city that appears in them - Stalingrad, and not the ancient one - Tsaritsyn (Volgograd bore it from 1589 to 1925).
By the way, it was Volgograd legislators who came up with the interesting initiative to temporarily rename the city. So, on public holidays and memorable dates(May 9 - on Victory Day, June 22 - on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, August 23 - on the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the bombing of Stalingrad by Nazi aircraft, September 2 - on the Day of the end of World War II and November 19 - on the Day of the beginning of the defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad) the capital of the Volgograd region begins to be called Stalingrad. And there is no need to spend money on renaming, and residents do not express protests.
Where did the Ostyaks and Voguls go?
Until the twentieth century, 42 cities in Russia were renamed. IN modern history Russian Federation The names of 129 cities changed, and in some places more than once. But what is even more surprising are the initiatives in which they renamed not just cities and regions, but entire nations!
Residents of the capital of Ugra prefer to call themselves Khanty and Mansi, rather than Ostyaks and Voguls. Photo: AiF / Evgeniy Listyuk
Take, to for example, Khanty-Mansiysk. Not everyone knows what the capital of Ugra used to wearcompletely different name, and, as today, consisting of the names of the main nationalities living in Autonomous Okrug. It’s just that once upon a time the Khanty and Mansi were called Ostyaks and Voguls. In the first case, these are the names that the northerners gave themselves, in the second case, these are the names that the Russians called them.
Soviet ethnography decided that ethnonyms should be the self-names of peoples, and not the names given to them by the Russians. And the Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Selkups, Nivkhs, etc. appeared. After this, it is logical to rename Ostyako-Vogulsk Khanty-Mansiysk,” explains historian Yakov Yakovlev.
Apparently, they decided correctly, because Ostyako-Vogulsk existed for only 10 years, and the current residents of Khanty-Mansiysk do not want to return this name to the city.
Leningrad is resting...
Some Russian cities were even lucky that the idea of changing names was not approved at the time. Otherwise, the descendants would certainly start renaming. So, the well-known Chelyabinsk could be called...Kaganovichagrad (in honor of the People's Commissar of Communications) or...Koba (in honor of Stalin's underground pseudonym)!
In both cases ideas came from active citizens and labor collectives of the city. The authorities either ignored the initiative or turned it down, at least according to Elena Rokhatsevich, an archaeographer at the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region, no official papers on this matter have been preserved.
6 more cities in the country that used to be called differently
- Izhevsk - Ustinov
In 1984, the capital of the Udmurt region - Izhevsk - changed its name to the city of Ustinov - named after marshal Soviet Union- Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov - twice Hero of Labor and Hero of the USSR. The official news of the renaming caused an unprecedented protest from the townspeople. Udmurtia categorically did not accept the new name of its capital, and already in 1987 Izhevsk was returned to its historical name.
- Samara - Kuibyshev
From 1935 to 1991 Samara was called Kuibyshev after the Soviet party and statesman Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev. In October 1917, it was Kuibyshev who participated in the establishment of Soviet power in Samara, and was the chairman of the Samara Revolutionary Committee and the provincial committee of the Bolshevik Party.
- Kirov - Vyatka
In 1934, in memory of a native of the Vyatka province, Sergei Kirov, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee renamed Vyatka to Kirov. It is curious that in fact the revolutionary and convinced Leninist’s name was Kostrikov. By the way, the first mention of Vyatka (or Vyatka land) in all-Russian chronicles dates back to 1374, but despite this rich history, the city still bears its Soviet name.
- Ekaterinburg - Sverdlovsk
Initially, the governor of Perm proposed renaming Yekaterinburg in 1914. Then there were such variants of the new name: Ekaterinograd, Isedonsk, Ekaterinopol, Ekaterinozavodsk. However, after discussion, the Duma unanimously supported maintaining the existing name, given by the emperor Peter the Great.
Later, the Perm Scientific Archival Commission proposed more options: Ekaterinozavodsk, Ekaterinoisetsk, Ekaterinougorsk, Ekaterinoural, Ekaterinokamensk, Ekaterinogor, Ekaterinobor. But none of these names suited me. Only ten years later (in 1924) the Yekaterinburg City Council decided to rename the city to Sverdlovsk in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, a leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The city remained in Sverdlovsk for 67 years. However, the region still remained Sverdlovsk.
- Vladikavkaz - Ordzhonikidze
Twice in its history, in 1931-1944 and 1954-1990, Vladikavkaz bore the name Ordzhonikidze. Georgy (Sergo) Ordzhonikidze was prominent politician and a revolutionary, a devoted supporter of Stalin, although at the end of his life he was not spared the wrath of the ruler. In 1944-54, Ordzhonikidze was renamed Dzaudzhikau. The historical name Vladikavkaz was returned to the city in 1990.
- Naberezhnye Chelny - Brezhnev
For just over five years (from November 19, 1982 to January 6, 1988), Naberezhnye Chelny bore the name of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
The city was renamed almost immediately after Brezhnev's death. This was a kind of tribute to the memory of the leader who actually built the new Naberezhnye Chelny. It was during the years of Brezhnev’s rule that the city experienced rapid growth: the Nizhnekamsk hydroelectric power station, the first factories appeared, and in the 1970s-1980s. and the largest plant for the production of KamAZ trucks and engines. The city of 20 thousand people has become half a million. The historical name of the city was returned in 1988.
The history of renaming in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia is long. The first wave swept from 1924 to 1929 (it was in 1925 that Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad). The second - in 1956–1962, during the fight against Stalin’s personality cult. In 1961, Stalingrad became Volgograd; at the same time, Molotov (Perm), Voroshilov (Ussuriysk), Kuibyshev (Belogorsk), Shcherbakov (Rybinsk) and even Chkalov (Orenburg) are leaving toponymy. The third wave is associated with “perestroika” (1985–1995): Leningrad again becomes St. Petersburg, Brezhnev - Naberezhnye Chelny, Sverdlovsk - Yekaterinburg, Ustinov - Izhevsk, Gorky - Nizhny Novgorod, Ordzhonikidze - Vladikavkaz. Another thing is that all this was inconsistent, for example, St. Petersburg is still in Leningrad region, and Yekaterinburg - in Sverdlovsk.
The idea of renaming Volgograd Stalingrad, according to estimates from the Volgograd mayor's office, will entail enormous costs. So, just a total change of citizens’ passports will cost 101.8 million rubles (the Volgograd budget deficit for 2013 is 786 million rubles), plus about 177 million rubles of personal expenses of citizens for duties - and this is only a small part of the costs. Renaming the city will require a complete re-registration of the statutory documents of all legal entities, making changes to documentation and maps, and also - which is perhaps the most expensive - making changes to existing transport schedules and transport Information Systems. True, the “Stalingrad regional committee” of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which supported the idea, estimated the costs at only 16 million rubles over five years.
Forbes remembered 12 years in Russia and former USSR who changed their names or are planning to do so, and calculated* how much it cost or could cost.
*Since the renaming applies to all military installations and facilities located in a given locality civil defense, information about which constitutes a state secret, the amounts of expenses are given on the basis of estimated data.
Samara, in 1935-1991 - Kuibyshev
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - 66.7 million rubles (1,8
Valerian Kuibyshev was born not in Samara or in the province, but in Omsk. However, in 1917, he, being the head of the Samara organization of the RSDLP and chairman of the local council, announced the victory of Soviet power from the stage of the Olympus circus theater. In 1935, the city in memory of the deceased party and statesman became Kuibyshev. The city was given an exceptional role during the Great Patriotic War: the government, the Supreme Council, and the diplomatic corps were evacuated here; Stalin's bunker was built as a reserve headquarters (together with the General Staff and the State Defense Committee located in Moscow). In 1987, the “Samara Committee” arose in the city for the return of the historical name. The city newspaper Volzhskaya Zarya published a voting questionnaire: 60% of readers supported the renaming, 30% were against it. In September 1990, the head of the City Council, Konstantin Titov, signed a decree on the renaming; less than six months later, the regional council approved this decision.
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - no less than 42.7 million rubles (1,2 billion rubles in 2012 prices)
“All-Union Elder” Mikhail Kalinin is a native not of the city, but of the Tver province. In 1931, Tver, known since 1135 and never changing its name until then, received the name Kalinin. In March 1988, city residents created an informal group “Return” with the goal of renaming. Disobedience to party bodies and councils gave the group considerable authority and the right to speak on behalf of the townspeople. In fact, the group forced the authorities to return the name of Tver to the city. On July 17, 1990, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin signed two decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR - “On the renaming of the city of Kalinin into the city of Tver” and “On the renaming of the Kalinin region into the Tver region.”
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - no less than 42.6 million rubles (1,2 billion rubles in 2012 prices)
The Pishpek fortress settled in the Chui Valley on the road to Issyk-Kul and Semirechye. At first, taxes were collected here from caravans, then there was a Cossack picket, then a bazaar. Since 1878 - the district center of the Semirechensk region, since 1925 - the center of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Region. In 1926, it was renamed in honor of a native of the city, chief of staff of the Red Army, People's Commissar and military theorist Mikhail Frunze, who had recently died suddenly (and under suspicious circumstances) during an operation for a stomach ulcer. On February 1, 1991, by decision of the Supreme Council of the Kyrgyz SSR, the city was renamed Bishkek, and in August the USSR collapsed, and Kyrgyzstan became independent.
Cost of possible renaming (estimate): from 6.5 to 29 million rubles
After the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934, competition broke out between the cities of Vyatka and Urzhum for the right to bear his name. The subtlety is that Kirov is a native of Urzhum (a city in the Vyatka province), and the party leader has never been to Vyatka. The desire of the residents of Urzhum was opposed by the persistence of the party activists of Vyatka, which ultimately decided the matter.
In 1993, a referendum was held in Kirov on returning the city’s historical name, but 71% of citizens were against it. Subsequently, the issue of renaming was raised at least six times, until changes in federal legislation made it possible on December 20, 2012 to adopt changes to the law “On the Administrative-Territorial Structure” in two readings at once. Kirov region”, which makes it possible to do without a referendum at all, only “revealing the opinion of the population regarding the renaming.” The city is expected to greet 2014 with a historical name.
Cost of possible renaming (estimate): from 37 to 104 million rubles
The provincial city of Simbirsk, after being renamed in 1924, was reassigned to the Kuibyshev region and remained a provincial regional center until the Great Patriotic War. After the start of the war, 15 factories were evacuated to Ulyanovsk, including ZIS (the current UAZ), as well as the Institute of Automation and Telemechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, design institutes of the aircraft industry and some departments of Moscow State University. In 2008, Ulyanovsk mayor Sergei Ermakov spoke out in favor of renaming, arguing that in 1924 the name was changed for political reasons, and not at all due to “urgent demands of the population.” But the mayor’s initiative to return the name to the city did not find support among residents, especially against the backdrop of information that residents’ campaigning in favor of the name “Simbirsk” cost the city 8 million rubles.
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1994 prices - no less than 16 million rubles (560,000 rubles in 2012 prices)
Naukograd, “the space capital of Russia”: RSC Energia, the Mission Control Center, branches of the State Research and Production Space Center named after. Khrunichev, JSC Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation. Originally the dacha village of Podlipki, where gun factory No. 8 was located in the 1920s, in the management of which M.I. took part. Kalinin. On the basis of this plant, NII-88 (OKB-1, later TsNIIMash) was created in 1946, the chief designer and later director of which was Sergei Korolev. On March 27, 1994, in a city referendum, residents voted against renaming the city, but already in July, President Boris Yeltsin, by decree No. 1020, “supporting the appeal of collectives of enterprises and organizations in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region,” renamed Kaliningrad to Korolev.
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - about 1 million rubles (28 million rubles in 2012 prices)
The ancient city in the southwest of the Crimean peninsula, at the confluence of the Chernaya River into the Sevastopol Bay, developed around the Kalamita fortress and the cave monastery of St. Clement. In 1475, the Turks captured the fortress and gave it the name Inkerman - “cave fortress”. Since that time, Inkerman has been a wine-growing region. In 1936, part of the underground galleries was given to the champagne winery; During the war, infirmaries were located there, and champagne was used in field surgery as an antiseptic. In 1957, Inkerman was included in Sevastopol. In 1961, a vintage wine factory was founded, and in 1976, Inkerman received the status of a separate city - and at the same time was renamed Belokamensk (in honor of the local stone quarries). In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR and Ukraine gaining independence, the city returned its historical name.
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - 28 million rubles (784 million rubles in 2012 prices)
Founded in 1778; in 1780 it became a place of compact settlement of the Greek Christian community removed from the Crimean Khanate. After the revolution of 1917 it suffered greatly; was almost completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, but by the end of 1950 almost fifty had been restored industrial enterprises exceeded the pre-war production level by a third. In October 1948, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the city was named after the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Andrei Zhdanov, a local native, who had died shortly before. In 1989, at the peak of the rehabilitation of victims Stalin's repressions and in connection with Zhdanov’s obviously active role in their organization (which is only the “fight against cosmopolitanism” and “courts of honor”) the city, at the request of the residents, was returned to its historical name.
Cost of renaming (estimate): in 1990 prices - no less than 1.2 million rubles (33.6 millionrubles in 2012 prices)
During the Great Patriotic War, the city was destroyed, but the fortress held its defense for 500 days, not allowing German troops cross to the right bank of the Neva, close the blockade ring and cut off the “road of life.” After the blockade was lifted, the city was given the name Petrokrepost. In 1991, Leningrad again became St. Petersburg (Anatoly Sobchak estimated the cost of renaming at 150 million rubles), and in 1992, in the process of streamlining relations between St. Petersburg and the region, the city acquired its historical name. In 1996, Shlisselburg became independent municipal entity, and since 2006 he re-entered Kirovsky district Leningrad region as an urban settlement.
Cost of possible renaming (estimated): $115 million
The “southern capital” of Kazakhstan, until 1921 - the city of Verny. On February 5, 1921, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in Verny, a new name for the city was invented - Alma-Ata. Since 1936 - the capital of the Kazakh SSR, after 1991 - independent Kazakhstan. Since 1993, according to the spelling norms of the Kazakh language, the city has been called Almaty. Since 2000, in Almaty and Karaganda the public (mostly Russian-speaking) has been in favor of returning the names Alma-Ata and Karaganda to the cities. According to calculations, renaming Almaty could cost $115 million (and this amount does not take into account all costs), and renaming Karaganda - 1.7 million tenge ($11,300). On January 21, 2013, the President of Kazakhstan approved amendments to the law “On Onomastics”, and in this regard, the current moratorium on renaming is expected to be lifted settlements back in the first half of this year.
Cost of renaming: in 1990 prices - about 50 million rubles (1,4 billion rubles in 2012 prices)
The “petrel of the revolution” and “founder of socialist realism” writer Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in whose honor the city was renamed. In 1989, at the suggestion of the Soviet Cultural Fund, an initiative was submitted to the City Council to return the city’s historical name. In response, the city council makes a decision (prepared in the city committee of the CPSU) about the inadmissibility of the renaming, which “detracts from the greatness” of Gorky. Along the way, the amount of expected costs is mentioned - about 50 million rubles: with this money it is possible to build a residential microdistrict. The Soviet Cultural Fund publishes its own calculations, and the amount turns out to be an order of magnitude smaller. In September 1990, the initiative to return the historical name was supported by the regional council, and then by the presidium Supreme Council RSFSR.
Cost of possible renaming (estimate): 200 million rubles
The unofficial “capital of Kuban”, in 1918-1919 - the actual capital of the “white” South of Russia. In March 1920, the city was occupied by units of the Red Army, and on November 7, the chairman of the Kuban Revolutionary Committee, Yan Poluyan, sent a telegram to the NKVD: “...considering the name of the city of Ekaterinodar reminiscent of slave times, completely meaningless in the republic of labor, forever freed from the descendants of Catherine and their minions, decided ask the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to name the city Krasnodar.” On December 7, by decree of the NKVD of the RSFSR, the city was renamed. In the post-Soviet period, the issue of renaming the city to Yekaterinodar was raised twice. In 1993, in a referendum, 70% of townspeople voted against: the cost of renaming was estimated at 70 million rubles - expenses that were completely unaffordable for either the city or the region. The issue was raised a second time in 2005, the cost of renaming was estimated at 200 million rubles, but the townspeople are still against the renaming.
Juggling city names is a fascinating game of the 20th century. And we can safely say that they had fun with it exclusively in the USSR, and then in Russia. About 200 cities changed their names. Some managed to change their name more than once over the course of several years.
In 1925, on April 10, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad, and already in 1961 this name was abandoned, giving the city the name Volgograd. Although there were many options. It was proposed to name Stalingrad Heroysk, Boygorodsk and even Leningrad-on-Volga. Recently, there have been more and more proposals to return the name Stalingrad to Volgograd. Whether a new wave of renamings will sweep the 21st century is an open question, but for now we propose to consider the most important reasons renaming of cities, towns and villages in the 20th century.
1. 20-30s - getting rid of names associated with the “tsarist regime”. Popularization of the names of heroes of the “new Bolshevik era”
After civil war, starting in 1918, both cities and villages, whose names did not correspond to the new ideology, decided to political map put away. The peak of renaming occurred in the 20s-30s. Stavropol turned into Voroshilovsk, Samara into Kuibyshev, Perm into Molotov, Tver into Kalinin, Nizhny Novgorod became Gorky, Orenburg was renamed Chkalov, Tsaritsyn into Stalingrad. In total, according to various experts, about 120 cities were renamed.
2. 60s – de-Stalinization. The country is getting rid of names associated with the “leader of the peoples”
In 1961, after the XXII Congress of the CPSU, it was ideologically correct to get rid of everything that reminded of Stalin. And therefore Stalinogorsk became Nevinnomysk, Stalinsk - Novokuznetsk, Stalingrad - Volgograd.
3. 80s - the desire to “perpetuate” the names of the General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee
In the 80s, the period of rule of the “Kremlin elders” began in the USSR. General Secretaries died one after another. They did not last long with cities named after them. For only five years, Rybinsk was Andropov, Naberezhnye Chelny was called Brezhnev from 1982 to 1988.
4. 90s - departure from Soviet ideology, return of original names
We experienced another round of mass renaming after the collapse of the Union: Leningrad became St. Petersburg, Sverdlovsk returned its original name Yekaterinburg, Kalinin again became Tver...
WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEM?
Renaming took place, of course, not only in Russia. True, foreign states do not put ideological meaning into names, but rather economic benefit. Yes, and the change of names often concerns not settlements, but others geographical objects. For example, in 2010, in China they decided to name one of the mountains after Cameron’s masterpiece “Avatar” in order to attract tourists. In New Zealand, for the sake of the same tourists, they decided to officially rename the capital Wellington to Center for three weeks Mediterranean.
Perhaps the only renaming abroad related to political motives, happened recently in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, where the highest point was named after Barack Obama.
On August 8, 1672, New York was captured by the Dutch. They renamed the city New Orange. We decided to talk about the stories of renaming different cities.
Byzantium Constantinople Istanbul
The names of this city, standing at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, reflect its entire history as if in a mirror. It is unlikely that the first inhabitants of the ancient Greek settlement of Byzantium (named after its mythical founder) knew that in 330 it would become the capital of the mighty Roman Empire, stretching from the Pillars of Hercules to Asia Minor. It was the gigantic extent that prompted Emperor Constantine to choose a new capital closer to the periphery. And although Constantine himself called his residence near the Bosphorus Strait “New Rome,” this name did not take root, and the city was soon dubbed Constantinople.
Years passed. The Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern, and in the 5th century “First Rome” fell under the onslaught of barbarians. However, the “Second Rome” remained. The Crusaders, during their 4th Crusade, dealt a serious blow to the Eastern Roman Empire. However, Constantinople was soon recaptured by the Byzantines and existed for another two centuries until it finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Turks, without thinking twice, turned the Church of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, and the city into the capital of the new Ottoman empire. Officially they did not change the name, but among themselves they immediately dubbed Constantinople Istanbul. After the formation of the Turkish Republic, the nationalist Ataturk moved the capital to Ankara.
It's no secret that royal Russia, which considered itself the “Third Rome,” long dreamed of returning “Rome the Second” to the fold of Christianity. And let them do it on time Russian-Turkish War, the city would have acquired the old Russian nickname Constantinople (on the gate of which, as you remember, the “prophetic Oleg” nailed his shield), and its fate would have been completely different.
New Amsterdam New York New Orange New York
Not everyone probably knows that future city Skyscrapers and the “American Dream” were founded not by the British, but by the Dutch. At the beginning of the 17th century, Dutch settlers bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians, where they founded a settlement named New Amsterdam in honor of the capital of their homeland. However, it did not bear this name for long - already in 1664 the city was captured by the British and immediately renamed in honor of the initiator of this military operation- King James II, Duke of York. The Dutch managed to briefly retake the city, and this time they named it New Orange. The new name did not help, the city again fell into the hands of the British and finally became New York.
St. Petersburg Petrograd Leningrad St. Petersburg
One has only to utter the word “St. Petersburg” and it immediately smells not of Russian, but of Western European spirit - first of all, German and Dutch. Peter I was indeed greatly influenced by the Dutch, and the name of the new Russian capital was originally “St. Peter-Burch”. People did not immediately like the cumbersome foreign name, and among themselves people long ago christened the city Peter. And at the beginning of the First World War, anti-German sentiments were so strong that they decided to “Russianize” the name officially. True, then history was changing so rapidly that the word “Petrograd” began to be associated not so much with the war, but with the Great October Revolution, a salvo from the Aurora and detachments of armed sailors.
Realities and idols had changed radically by that time. And when the Bolshevik leader died in 1924, the city was renamed Leningrad. And, I must say, the new name stuck. Firstly, due to purely phonetic euphony. Secondly, due to historical events that connected the name of the city with the terrible blockade. Therefore, even during the time of perestroika and another feverish renaming (now back), only 54 percent of residents voted for the return of Leningrad to its old name.
Tsaritsyn Stalingrad Volgograd
The current Volgograd was renamed twice. And both times it was inappropriate. Of course, the old name - Tsaritsyn - would hardly have been preserved in Soviet Russia. But Stalin himself (in 1925, not yet the most influential person in the state) was categorically against giving the city his name. But Stalin was told that everything had already been approved and agreed upon, and Tsaritsyn and a number of other cities received the names of Soviet figures.
The discreditation of Stalin under Khrushchev stripped many cities of their names. And there would be nothing wrong with renaming Stalingrad if it were not for the famous Battle of Stalingrad, which turned the tide of the war and forever inscribed the name of the city in the pages of history. AND modern schoolchildren They may well be wondering why the Battle of Stalingrad, and the hero city of Volgograd?
Nizhny Novgorod Gorky Nizhny Novgorod
The history of the city of Nizhny Novgorod begins in 1221. Nizhny Novgorod was founded at the confluence of the great Russian rivers - the Volga and Oka - by Prince Yuri (George) Vsevolodovich in 1221 as a stronghold for the defense of Russian borders from the Mordovians, Cheremis and Tatars. The city received the name “Nizhny” - perhaps because it was located in the “Nizovsky” lands relative to Novgorod the Great, perhaps relative to the “old town” that already existed four miles up the Oka River, the mention of which remained until the beginning of the 17th century.
The location of the city determined its future fate. After graduation Tatar yoke Nizhny Novgorod is constantly mentioned in Russian chronicles, strengthening itself as a major political and economic center of North-Eastern Rus', remaining a spiritual stronghold of Orthodoxy in the Volga region. At this time, it often served as the object of conflicts during the division of spheres of influence between Moscow and Tver, which were gaining strength. There was a time when Nizhny was named the capital of the great principality, which existed for more than half a century (1341-1392) and was not inferior to Moscow and Tver in its desire to dominate Russia. Seventeen times in the history of the city, enemies approached Nizhny and destroyed it more than once, but the city was reborn again and again.
Since the early 30s of the 20th century, the city began to bear the name of the proletarian writer A.M. Gorky. Today the city has returned its historical name - Nizhny Novgorod.
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Video: Gazeta.ru
Should Volgograd be renamed Stalingrad?