It turns out that after 1961, in the vast expanses of the former Soviet Union, there are almost no objects named after the Battle of Stalingrad. And if with the cities and streets named after Stalin, the renaming can somehow be understood, then is it really due to the notorious "overcoming the consequences of the personality cult"? Khrushchev proclaimed it back in 1956, but since then it would be time to think better. With regard to Stalingrad, this campaign, which continues today, erased not so much the name of Stalin as the unfading role of the Battle of Stalingrad in ensuring the victory of the USSR and the entire anti-fascist coalition over Nazism.
And after all, abroad, although not everywhere, this role is not forgotten. By the way, since the end of the 50s in Soviet, and then in Russian history textbooks, historical monographs and articles that “overcame” the consequences of the personality cult, such names as “Battle on the Volga” and “Victory on the Volga” still prevail. Moreover, the Soviet censorship often allowed seemingly random copyright typos like "Battle at the Walls of the Volga" …
According to a number of data, the well-known film epic "Liberation" (1971-72), this kind of film reader of the Great Patriotic War, was supposed to begin with the series "The Battle of Stalingrad". However, already having more than half of the footage filmed, the censorship chose not to show it at all in the Central Committee: they say, the name Stalingrad will have to be mentioned too often. It is enough to include in this epic of the positive role of Stalin himself …
The absurdity of the situation is obvious. We are making incredible efforts in the fight against the falsification of the history of the Second World War, and, by the way, this gives a very definite return. Now is the time to keep the defensive in the war against memory and monuments, and here our successes are much more modest. In the Baltics, and especially in Poland, the process resembles the spread of some contagious disease.
Just the other day, in the tiny Sarnica in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, a monument was demolished to Soviet intelligence officers who once saved the crown of Krakow from an explosion. The monument was erected in 1969 on the spot where, in 1944, three of our scouts were killed while carrying out a mission, blowing themselves up along with the Nazis who surrounded them. It was written on the monument:
“Here, in the fall of 1944, a group of Soviet intelligence officers operating in the rear of the German army were surrounded by Nazi raids and waged a long-term defensive struggle to break into the Nadnotek forest. When the ammunition ran out, the scouts heroically gave their lives. The remains of the victims were buried in a mass grave at the cemetery in Cheshevo."
At the same time, along with the demolition of monuments, settlements, squares and streets are also renamed. As a sad example, one cannot but recall the town of Opole (formerly Oppeln) in Silesia. The central street of this city, named after the Defenders of Stalingrad, remained one of the last objects in Eastern Europe that preserved the memory of the Great Battle. But in mid-October 2017, the name was simply "abolished" in pursuance of the Polish law "On Decommunization", adopted on June 22, 2017.
But polls of local residents, conducted in August of the same year with the support of the City Hall, showed that almost 60% of respondents consider the renaming and similar actions initiated by Warsaw as a waste of public funds.
But no one took such sentiments into account, in connection with which the then press secretary of the Opole City Hall, Katarzyna Oborska-Marciniak, said at the end of August 2017 that “the city has little time to hold consultations with local residents. In the event, no later than this autumn, decide on the controversial names and, first of all, eliminate openly pro-communist, pro-Soviet names anywhere in the country."
Stalingradskaya Street was included in the "controversial" register, but, most likely, only for the appearance of an allegedly liberal approach to the issue. After all, together with her, they deprived of their real names and Gagarin Street, as well as the Volunteers - Polish participants in the Spanish Civil War.
Against this background, old events in such remote corners of Europe as, for example, Albania, may be completely forgotten. In the town of Kuchova, which from 1949 to 1991 was simply called Stalin and was the center of the country's oil refining industry, there was also Heroes of Stalingrad Street. However, in 1993 they decided to rename it. Albanian leader Enver Hoxha visited Stalin twice a year - November 19 and February 2, dates that the Soviet people do not need to be reminded of. Khoja's widow, 98-year-old Nejimye, still travels to Kuchova, but his successor Ramiz Aliya limited himself to a single visit back in 1986.
But the actual "alteration" of the history of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War - at least in relation to Stalingrad and Stalin - began in the USSR in the late 1950s (see here). And it continues, alas, to this day.
So which of any significant objects of toponymy remains now in the former Soviet Union with the name of Stalingrad? Streets, avenues, squares of the Heroes of Stalingrad or the Battle of Stalingrad still exist in Volgograd and Gorlovka, in Makeyevka and Khartsyzsk, in Simferopol and Tskhinval, and finally, the bas-relief "Stalingrad" at the Novokuznetskaya metro station in Moscow has been preserved. And it's all…
Meanwhile, in the countries of Western Europe there were no renaming of numerous objects named in honor of the Stalingrad Victory. However, they prefer not to touch the objects named after Stalin himself, perceiving history as it was and is. In these countries, they do not cross the line of elementary historical decency both in relation to the great Battle of Stalingrad and the generalissimo - the leader of the USSR, the liberating country in those years.
But in the Czech Republic there are similar objects in the cities of Teplice, Kolín, Karlovy Vary and Pardubice; in Slovakia - in the capital Bratislava. Stalingrad addresses still remain in the capital of Belgium Brussels, Italian Bologna and Milan. Europeans are practical and do not like to spend money on renaming, adjusting to the political situation. Moreover, it changes more often than old cities are rebuilt.
Well, the leader in the number of Stalingrad names available in many of its cities, of course, is France. Let's name only the largest and most famous: Paris, Saint-Nazaire, Grenoble, Chaville, Hermont, Colombes, Nantes, Nice, Marseille, Lyon, Limoges, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Puteaux, Saint-Etienne, Mulhouse and Saartrouville.
Fortunately, the French do not forget the words of Charles de Gaulle, a general and hero of the Resistance, who was rightly called the last of the Great Presidents, when he visited Volgograd in 1966. In his speech at the Mamayev Kurgan, de Gaulle said: "This city will remain in world history as Stalingrad. Only national traitors and instigators of a new world war can forget about the great battle of Stalingrad."
Well, as for the appearance in Moscow of the well-known Volgogradsky Avenue, it could well be assessed as another not very successful link to geography. Even the network Wikipedia testifies that in 1964 the toponym "Volgogradskiy Prospekt" was not chosen quite correctly, since another road leads towards Volgograd - M6 "Caspian", which starts in the Moscow region from the M4 "Don" motorway, and in Moscow itself - and completely from Lipetsk street.
However, compared to the Varshavskoe highway, which runs directly south, this is, one might say, trifles. After all, with Volgogradsky Prospekt, at least the general direction was chosen almost correctly, and from it it is still possible to get to the city on the Volga. And even the hook will be no more than fifty kilometers away.
But after all, in fact, the assignment of the name of Volgograd to one of the new highways of the capital was nothing more than Brezhnev's attempt to "confirm" the Khrushchev cliché regarding the Battle of Stalingrad, which took place exclusively on the Volga … to him about the need to "rehabilitate the memory" of Stalin.
But, for example, in Beijing they were able to very quickly assess that in relation to not only Stalin, but also Stalingrad, LI Brezhnev would not go further than the duty "positive mentions". The proposals for the official "rehabilitation" of Stalin for the Brezhnev leadership turned out to be less important than the prospect of establishing a long-term dialogue and economic cooperation with the West. Especially in connection with the plans to lay Soviet oil and gas corridors to Western Europe.
