Putin Invites Public Debate on Stalingrad Revival Amid Airport Renaming

President Vladimir Putin said he is open to considering a possibility to rename Volgograd back to Stalingrad, but emphasized that it would be up to city residents to make such a decision.

"It's up to the residents to decide. We'll think about it. We need to ask the residents,” the president said in response to a proposal during a meeting with participants of the "Knowledge. The First” marathon.

In 2023, a VTsIOM poll showed that 67% of Volgograd residents were opposed to renaming the city, with only 26% supporting the idea. The reasons cited for opposition included:

• concerns about high financial costs,
• lack of meaning,
• reluctance to live in the past,
• and negative attitudes toward Stalin as a historical figure.

Putin renames Volgograd Airport to Stalingrad

Putin signed a decree to rename the airport of Volgograd. According to the decree, the Volgograd (Gumrak) International Airport is granted the historical name "Stalingrad.” The Kremlin press service published the official document stating:

"To assign the historical name "Stalingrad' to Volgograd International Airport. It is established that:
(a) the historical name assigned to the airport is not considered part of the official geographic name of the location;
(b) assigning the historical name to the airport does not result in an official name change of the geographical object,” the document states.

The initiative to rename the airport came from participants in the military operation and veterans. Volgograd Region Governor Andrey Bocharov then relayed that to Putin. The President promised to sign the decree upon his return to Moscow.

Volgograd Airport (Gumrak) was established in 1952 on the basis of a former military airfield of the same name, which had existed since the late 1920s. Before the Battle of Stalingrad and the relocation of the flight school to Kazakhstan's Kostanay region, the Stalingrad Military Aviation School was based there. During the battle, the airfield was used by German forces. Ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the airport underwent major renovations, including the construction of a new runway and the opening of a new terminal.

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Volgograd formerly Tsaritsyn (1589–1925) and Stalingrad (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of 859.4 square kilometres (331.8 square miles), with a population of slightly over one million residents. Volgograd is the 16th-largest city by population size in Russia, the third-largest city of the Southern Federal District, and the fourth-largest city on the Volga. The city was founded as the fortress of Tsaritsyn in 1589. By the 19th century, Tsaritsyn had become an important river-port and commercial centre, leading to its rapid population growth. In November 1917, at the start of the Russian Civil War, Tsaritsyn came under Bolshevik control. It fell briefly to the White Army in mid-1919 but returned to Bolshevik control in January 1920. In 1925, the city was renamed Stalingrad in honor of Joseph Stalin, who took part in defending the city against the White Army who had then ruled the country. During World War II, Axis forces attacked the city, leading to the Battle of Stalingrad, the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, from which it received the title of Hero City. In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev's administration renamed the city to Volgograd as part of de-Stalinization. The Soviet victory at Stalingrad is widely held to be the turning point of World War II, leading to the destruction of the German army in the East. Volgograd today is the site of The Motherland Calls, an 85-metre (279 ft) high statue dedicated to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is the tallest statue in Europe, as well as the second tallest statue of a woman in the world. The city has many tourist attractions, such as museums, sandy beaches, and a self-propelled floating church. Volgograd was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.