State Duma Refuses to Debate Volgograd Name Change

The State Duma has voted against putting a bill proposing that Volgograd be renamed Stalingrad on the agenda of the first plenary session this spring.

The proposal was only backed by 154 deputies, 72 short of the majority needed.

Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov (from the LDPR) was behind the initiative to include the bill on the agenda of the day. In his opinion, historical justice needs to be restored by returning the city to the "glorious name" owing to which it became a hero-city, i.e. Stalingrad.

The Battle of Stalingrad, which was fought sixty years ago from June 17th, 1942, to February 2nd, 1943, was the turning point not only in the Great Patriotic War waged by the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, but also the entire Second World War.