During the peak of Joseph Stalin’s cult of personality, a widespread practice emerged where cities, towns, villages, streets, city squares and even mountain peaks were renamed to glorify the Soviet ruler.
Across the Soviet Union, numerous cities were given new names to honor Stalin. For instance, Tskhinvali in South Ossetia was renamed Staliniri, Dushanbe in Tajikistan became Stalinabad, and Donetsk was changed to Stalino. Perhaps the most renowned example was Volgograd in Russia, which was once known as Stalingrad. This city symbolized the Soviet resistance against the Nazi forces during World War II.
However, it wasn’t just the USSR that renamed cities in honor of the Soviet ruler. In Europe, the Albanian city of Kuçovë was named Qyteti Stalin, the Bulgarian city of Varna became Stalin under the communist government, while the German city of Eisenhüttenstadt became known as Stalinstadt. Similarly, Hungary’s Dunaújváros became Sztálinváros, Poland’s Katowice was called Stalinogród and Romania’s Brașov was referred to as Orașul Stalin, meaning ‘Stalin City’.
Eventually, as the Soviet authorities sought to cancel Stalin’s cult of personality, the aforementioned cities underwent another round of renaming. Most of them reclaimed their historic names by 1961 or even earlier.
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