Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday it was up to residents of Volgograd to decide whether the city should revert to the name of Stalingrad, as it was called when Soviet forces defeated Nazi invaders in World War Two's bloodiest battle. Ahead of next week's commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazi Germany, the issue has been raised of restoring the wartime name of the southern Russian city. Stalingrad, renamed Volgograd in 1961 as part of a process of "destalinisation", was the bloodiest battle of the war, when the Soviet Red Army, at a cost of more than 1 million casualties, broke the back of German invasion forces in 1942-43.
Author: Reuters
Published at: 2025-04-30 22:53:22
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