On May 19, 2016, it became known about the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of independent Ukraine to rename the city of Dnipropetrovsk to Dnipro. The renaming was initiated by the city council at the end of 2015 as part of the decommunization of the names of Ukrainian cities. The fact is that the city was renamed in honor of the Soviet party and statesman Grigory Petrovsky (1878 - 1958), and not in honor of the Apostle Peter, as one might assume. And now the capital of the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine is the city of Dnipro.
A similar situation in Russia is associated with Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, which, having returned their former names, remained the centers of the Sverdlovsk and Leningrad regions, respectively. But the conversation is not even about that. Just today I wanted to remember and find out the former names of Russian cities. Because many former names are not only not well known, but may even seem paradoxical. For example, what is the name of Stavropol-on-Volga today? Don't remember? Because how else can you find out the old name of Tolyatti, if you are either not born and live there, or have relatives there, or be Wasserman from Russian geography. For everyone else - the current article.
Cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people
To determine the order in which cities are indicated, the names of which have changed over the course of Russian history, the principle of decreasing population was chosen - from the largest to the smallest. To do this, it turned out to be sufficient to use the list of Russian cities with the corresponding rank, for example, in the Wikipedia table. It seems that it is enough to confine ourselves to cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people, and say a few words about the rest separately. So.
| City | Former names | Notes |
| St. Petersburg | Petrograd (1914 - 1924) Leningrad (1924 - 1991) |
Yes, the child of Peter was imprinted in the history of the Great Patriotic War with the sad phrase "blockade of Leningrad." The former capital of the Russian Empire, Petrograd was renamed in honor of the pseudonym of the leader of the world revolution. |
| Yekaterinburg | Sverdlovsk (1924 - 1991) | Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, together with Lenin, authorized the execution of the royal family just in Yekaterinburg ... |
| Nizhny Novgorod | Gorky (1932 - 1990) | Yes, if it were not for another pseudonym, this time the writer Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, the cars of the local plant would be called not GAZ, but NNAZ ... |
| Samara | Kuibyshev (1935 - 1991) | Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev is another associate of Lenin in the cause of the revolution. Born in Omsk, died in Moscow, but in 1917 he established Soviet power in Samara. |
| Permian | Molotov (1940 - 1957) | Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov is an ardent revolutionary and Soviet politician. The city of Perm was renamed Molotov in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR at that time. Interestingly, until 1957, two more cities, Severodvinsk and Nolinsk, bore his name in the variant "Molotovsk". |
| Volgograd | Tsaritsyn (1589 - 1925) Stalingrad (1925 - 1961) |
The title of Hero City was awarded to Stalingrad in 1965, when the city lost the name of Stalin after the leader's personality cult was debunked. But the Battle of Stalingrad played a decisive role in the Great Victory. |
| Krasnodar | Ekaterinodar (1793 - 1920) | Catherine's gift to the Black Sea Cossack army. |
| Tolyatti | Stavropol / Stavropol-on-Volga (1737 - 1964) | It's simple: on the Volga - so as not to be confused with the Azov Stavropol, and Togliatti - in honor of the leader of the Italian Communist Party Palmiro Togliatti, who died just in 1964. |
| Ulyanovsk | Sinbirsk (1648 - 1780) Simbirsk (1780 - 1924) | Named after the real name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who was born here and died in 1924. |
| Makhachkala | Petrovskoe (1844 - 1857) Petrovsk (1857 - 1921) |
During the Persian campaign of 1722, the camp of the troops of Peter I was located here. It was renamed in honor of the Avar revolutionary, Bolshevik and Dagestan politician Makhach Dakhadaev. Makhach, by the way, is his pseudonym. |
| Ryazan | Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky (1095 - 1778) | Yes, Ryazan is called Ryazan three times less in time compared to its former name. |
| Naberezhnye Chelny | Brezhnev (1982 - 1988) | Yes, the Brezhnev era was short and stagnant. |
Cities with a population of less than 500 thousand people
Yes, it would be fundamentally wrong to focus only on large cities. After all, the population is one thing, and the proud names are another. It is difficult to imagine the current article without recalling Grebenshchikov's line "This train flies like an apostolic rank on the way from Kalinin to Tver" and without indicating that from 1931 to 1990 Tver bore the name of the "all-Russian headman" Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.
However, one can confine oneself to simple mentions of how certain Russian cities used to be called. So:
Kirov - Vyatka - Khlynov
Kaliningrad - Twangste - Koenigsberg
Stavropol - Stavropol-Kavkazsky - Voroshilovsk
Sevastopol - Akhtiar
Ivanovo – Ivanovo-Voznesensk
Kurgan - Tsarevo Settlement - Kurgan Sloboda
Vladikavkaz - Ordonikidze (yes, if the city had been left named after Grigory Nikolaevich Ordzhonikidze, it would have been not Vlakikavkaz, Ordzhonikidze "Alania" that was the Russian football champion in 1995)
Murmansk – Romanov-on-Murman
Yoshkar-Ola - Tsarevokokshaysk - Krasnokokshaysk
Syktyvkar – Ust-Sysolsk
Dzerzhinsk – Rastyapino
Veliky Novgorod – Novgorod
Engels - Pokrovskaya Sloboda - Pokrovsk
Yes, not only cities, but also entire countries and empires are insured against large-scale renaming. It is only important that new names are chosen according to taste. Here is Tula, for example. As it was founded in 1146, it remains Tula today. Maybe they say the truth, that whatever you call a ship, that's how it will sail. This is especially true for such huge ships as cities.
Young and old, large and small cities, under the influence of certain historical events, tend to change their name. Sometimes the names change more than once, and not so rarely the first name of the city returns after the change again. We will look at 10 such Russian cities and talk about the events that preceded the renaming.
The most famous cities in Russia that have changed their name:
1. St. Petersburg
From 1703 to 1914 the city was called St. Petersburg. The city was called Petrograd for only 10 years and in 1924, after the death of Lenin, it was renamed Leningrad. In honor of Lenin, the city bore the name until 1991, when its historical name returned.
2. Sochi
1838 - Fort Alexandria, a year later - Navaginskoye fortification. In 1964, the city was named Post Dakhovsky, and 10 years later - Dakhovsky Posad. The modern name of the city has been since 1896 in honor of the Sochi River.
3. Volgograd
Tsaritsyn has been the name of the city since 1589. Since 1925 it was renamed in honor of Stalin in Stalingrad. At the request of the workers in 1961, the city was renamed again, the name was tied to the nearby Volga River.
4. Togliatti
This city was founded in 1737 and was called Stavropol or Stavropol-on-Volga. It was renamed in 1964 and began to bear the name of the Italian Communist Party Secretary Palmiro Togliatti.
5. Kaliningrad
In 1946, the German city of Koenigsberg became a Soviet city and was renamed Kaliningrad in honor of party leader Mikhail Kalinin. The city had its first name since 1225.
6. Makhachkala
In 1844, the Petrovsky fortification was founded, since 1857 the settlement became known as Port-Petrovsk or the port city of Petrovsk in honor of Peter I. In 1918, the city was renamed Shamil-Kala, in honor of the national hero of Dagestan Shamil, and the city was named Makhachkala in 1921 , in honor of another Dagestan - Makhach Dakhadaev.
7. Kirov
1181 - the settlement of Khlynov was formed. In 1347 it was renamed into Vyatka, after 110 years - again into Khlynov, and from 1780 to 1934 the city was called Vyatka. In December 1934, the city was renamed in honor of the revolutionary and Leninist Sergei Mironovich Kirov (Kostrikov).
8. Novosibirsk
The first name of the settlement was in honor of Emperor Alexander III and the village of Aleksandrovsky became known, and a year later - the village of Novo-Nikolaevsky, in honor of the new Tsar Nicholas II. Since 1903, the settlement became the city of Novonikolaevsk, and since 1925 - Novosibirsk.
9. Yoshkar-Ola
Like most cities in Russia, at first there was a first name (Tsarevokokshaisk, 1584), then with the advent of Soviet power, the city changes its name (Krasnokokshaisk, 1918). And the city usually receives the third name in the middle or at the end of the 20th century. Yoshkar-Ola received this name in 1927.
10. Syktyvkar
The original name is associated with the place where the mouth of the Sysola River is located. The city had the name Ust-Sysolsk from 1780 to 1930. The new name has not changed its meaning, since Syktyvkar is translated from the local language as “a city on Sysol” (“Syktyv” - “Sysola”, “kar” - “about”).
Many cities changed their names only for the period of Soviet times: Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky), Vladikavkaz (Ordzhonikidze, Dzadzhikau), Orenburg (Chkalov), Perm (Molotov), Samara (Kuibyshev), Tver (Kalinin), Elista (Stepnoy) and others. Basically, the renaming was in honor of writers and politicians. Sometimes they changed their names only because the cities were named after Russian monarchs, who were hated by the Soviet authorities. Many historical names were brought back in the 1990s after the collapse of the USSR.
Plan
1. Ustinov-Izhevsk
2. Kuibyshev-Samara
3. Vyatka-Kirov
4. Yekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk
5. Andropov-Rybinsk
6. Dzaudzhikau-Ordzhonikidze-Vladikavkaz
7. Leningrad-St. Petersburg
8. Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad-Volgograd
9. Kalinin-Tver
10. Krasnodar-Ekaterinodar
11. Gorky-Nizhny Novgorod
1. Ustinov-Izhevsk
There was a moment in the 240-year history of Izhevsk when it almost lost its historical name forever. Many residents of the republic, especially Izhevsk residents, remember the history of renaming Izhevsk to Ustinov.
Archival materials of the Center for Documentation of the Contemporary History of the UR (the former party archive of the Udmurt Regional Committee of the CPSU) also tell about this. On December 20, 1984, Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov died. At the end of December, the head of the department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, I.F. Dmitriev, called the first secretary of the Udmurt regional committee of the CPSU, Valery Konstantinovich Marisov, and asked about the consent of the regional committee to rename Izhevsk to Ustinov. Consent was given. The next day, Marisov questioned the members of the bureau of the regional committee. There were no objections.
December 27, 1984 adopted a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the renaming of Izhevsk to Ustinov without mentioning that this is the capital of an autonomous republic. On the same day, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on perpetuating the memory of Ustinov appeared. Never in the history of the country have such decisions been made so quickly. Never before has there been a renaming of such a large city, the capital. The official announcement of the renaming on January 3, 1985 caused an unprecedented wave of indignation and protest of the townspeople.
On February 10, student youth attempted to hold a protest demonstration in the historic center of the city. But she was dispersed by the police. A number of students were expelled from the university for trying to collect signatures for letters of protest.
The local leadership feverishly resisted mass discontent: Izhevsk badges were torn off schoolchildren's jackets, the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the city was canceled, the old Izhevsk pond was renamed the "Ustinov reservoir", etc.
During the elections to the Supreme Soviets of the RSFSR and the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1985, 8386 inscriptions like "We vote for Izhevsk!" were made on the ballots. Reservations in the name of the city, allowed by speakers at meetings, meetings, concerts, as a rule, cause applause. On August 13, 1986, several leaflets were posted in the city with an appeal to the working people of ... Izhevsk with a call to go to a citywide demonstration under the slogan "We are for Izhevsk!" 3 . The youth demonstration was again prevented by the police.
Awakened by the already beginning perestroika, Udmurtia did not accept the new name of its capital.
The information of the regional committee of the CPSU in April 1987 stated: “The situation today is such that in many collectives there are not even 1-2-3 people who would speak out for Ustinov. That is, almost 90% of both workers and employees, and the intelligentsia unambiguously support the return of the former name of the city. This situation naturally worries the regional committee of the party ... "
The Bureau of the Udmurt Regional Committee of the Party turned to the Central Committee of the CPSU with a request to consider the issue of renaming the city. On June 19, 1987, Izhevsk was returned to its historical name.
2. Kuibyshev-Samara
Founded in 1586 on the left bank of the Volga, at the confluence of the Samarka River into the Volga. On the coat of arms of the city "a white wild goat standing on the grass in a blue field. The shield of the coat of arms is crowned with a golden Imperial crown." Samara quickly became rich in the bread trade. Possessing the best Volga piers, connected by railways with Siberia, Tashkent and Moscow, Samara pulled grain cargoes to itself, being the main Volga city for the production of wheat flour. In 1880, the famous Zhigulevsky brewery was built by the merchant of the 1st guild, Alfred Filippovich von Wakan (a former Austrian citizen). Russians also know the wonderful taste of Samara chocolate.
In Russian history, Samara twice served as the capital. In 1918 it was the center of the White Guard movement. This later became one of the reasons for the renaming of Samara to Kuibyshev (1935). In 1941, the government of the Soviet Union moved here from Moscow. Stalin remained in Moscow. (In the autumn of 1941, German troops were stationed 30 km from the capital). Together with state institutions, industrial enterprises of Ukraine and Russia were evacuated to Kuibyshev. The production of IL-2 aircraft was launched here, which contributed to the development of the city's aviation industry.
A notable place in the region is the Zhiguli Mountains. Deep valleys and bizarre slopes, rare species of animals and relic plants have made them a unique corner of the Volga region. In the bend of the Volga near Samara is the national natural park "Samarskaya Luka".
Writers S. Aksakov, A. Tolstoy, L. Kassil, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, artists I. Repin, F. Vasiliev, A. Ivanov began their career in Samara. The first Russian opera was created here. Local history and art museums, A. Tolstoy's house-museum, and the museum of the history of the troops of the Volga Military District have been opened in the city.
3. Vyatka-Kirov
In 1929, an administrative-territorial reform took place, the division of the country into provinces, counties and volosts was eliminated. Instead of them, a regional, regional and district department was introduced. Vyatka province was liquidated, and its territory became part of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The city of Vyatka became first a district and then a regional center. In 1929, in the Nizhny Novgorod region and in the regions of the former Vyatka province that were part of it, complete collectivization began.
On December 7, 1934, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the renaming of the city of Vyatka into the city of Kirov and the formation of the Kirov Territory. It included the Udmurt Autonomous Region, 37 districts of the Gorky Region (formerly part of the Vyatka Governorate), as well as the Sarapulsky and Votkinsky Districts of the Sverdlovsk Region. In 1936, in connection with the adoption of the new Constitution, the Kirov Territory was transformed into the Kirov Region, and the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic separated from it.
On June 23, 1941, a city-wide rally was held on Revolution Square in Kirov, in which 40,000 people took part. Mobilization into the ranks of the Red Army took place in the region. The Vyatka region gave many talented military leaders.
The population of the Kirov region not only heroically worked in industry and agriculture, doing everything for a speedy victory, but also provided all possible assistance to the front. The population sent gifts and warm clothes to the veterans. During the war years, the defense fund received more than 150 million rubles. Kirov residents ardently cared for the wounded, as well as for the children and families of front-line soldiers evacuated to the region from Leningrad and other regions of the country. On May 9, 1945, a 50,000-strong rally on the occasion of Victory Day took place on Theater Square. During the war years, more than 600 thousand Kirov residents were in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 257.9 thousand gave their lives in the fight against enemies.
In the post-war years, the labor successes of the Kirovites were repeatedly highly noted by the government of the country. December 25, 1959 for success in the development of public animal husbandry, the fulfillment of socialist obligations for the production and sale of meat to the state in 1959
The Kirov region was awarded the Order of Lenin. On June 25, 1974, the city of Kirov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for the successes achieved by the people of Kirov in economic and cultural construction, and in connection with the 600th anniversary of its founding. At the same time, the growing negative trends in the socio-economic development in the country affected the life in the region. This was especially noticeable in the increased outflow of people from the village. For 1970-1985 the rural population decreased from 784 to 524 thousand people. Negative phenomena were growing in the cities as well. The supply of food to the population was unsatisfactory. It was impossible to overcome these difficulties while maintaining the existing command-administrative management system. In April 1985, perestroika began. But the ongoing reforms have led to an even greater deterioration of the socio-economic situation in the region.
Simultaneously with economic reforms in the country and the region there were political transformations. After the events of October 1993, the socialist system of power was finally liquidated. Governors, mayors, Dumas began to get out. Elections to the first regional Duma were held on March 20, 1994. In 1996, the first elections of the governor of the region were held. They elected V.N. Sergeenkov.
4. Yekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk
The question of renaming Yekaterinburg first arose after the outbreak of the First World War, when the rise of nationalist sentiment already in August 1914 led to the renaming of the capital of the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, into Petrograd. The Perm governor suggested renaming Yekaterinburg at the end of October 1914. He was supported by the head of the Ural mining plants. On December 23, 1914, he sent a letter from Yekaterinburg to the Perm Scientific Archival Commission, in which he stated that "it is certainly desirable to determine the choice of its new name." The Yekaterinburg City Duma addressed this issue only on April 29, 1915. The following variants of the new name were proposed: Yekaterinograd, Isedonsk, Yekaterinopol, Yekaterinozavodsk. After the discussion, the Duma unanimously spoke in favor of retaining the existing name of the city of Yekaterinburg, "not daring to encroach on the name given by Emperor Peter the Great."
However, in December 1916, in a letter from the Perm Scientific Archival Commission to the Chief Head of the Ural Mining Plants, the issue of renaming Yekaterinburg was again raised. The commission proposed new names "befitting a Russian city": Yekaterinozavodsk, Yekaterinoisetsk, Yekaterinougorsk, Yekaterinoural, Yekaterinokamensk, Yekaterinogor, Yekaterinobor. The revolutionary upheavals that broke out soon pushed the problem aside for a long time.
The renaming of the streets and squares of Yekaterinburg began in 1919, which was announced on November 6 at a solemn meeting of the Yekaterinburg Council. Then this process continued.
Instruction
Some believe that the city on the Neva received the name "St. Petersburg" in honor of its founder, Peter I. But this is not so. The Northern Capital got its name in honor of the heavenly patron of the first Russian emperor - the apostle Peter. "St. Petersburg" literally means "City of St. Peter", and Peter the Great dreamed of founding a city in honor of his heavenly patron long before Petersburg was founded. And the geopolitical significance of the new Russian capital has also enriched the name of the city with a metaphorical meaning. After all, the Apostle Peter is considered the keeper of the keys to the gates of heaven, and the Peter and Paul Fortress (it was from it that the construction of St. Petersburg began in 1703) was called upon to guard the sea gates of Russia.
The name "St. Petersburg" was carried by the Northern Capital for more than two centuries - until 1914, after which it was renamed "in the Russian manner" and became Petrograd. It was a political move by Nicholas II, associated with Russia's entry into the First World War, which was accompanied by strong anti-German sentiments. It is possible that the decision to "Russify" the name of the city was influenced by Paris, where Germanskaya and Berlinskaya streets were promptly renamed Zhores and Liege streets. The city was renamed overnight: on August 18, the emperor ordered to change the name of the city, the documents were issued immediately, and, as the newspapers wrote the next day, the townspeople "went to sleep in St. Petersburg, and woke up in Petrograd."
The name "Petrograd" existed on the maps for less than 10 years. In January 1924, on the fourth day after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Petrograd Soviet of Deputies decided that the city should be renamed Leningrad. The decision noted that it was adopted “at the request of the grieving workers,” but the author of the idea was Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev, who at that time held the post of chairman of the city council. At that time, the capital of Russia had already been moved to Moscow, and the importance of Petrograd had declined. Assigning the name of the leader of the world proletariat to the city significantly increased the "ideological significance" of the city of three revolutions, making it in fact the "party capital" of the communists of all countries.
At the end of the 80s of the last century, during the democratic transformations in the USSR, another wave of renaming began: cities with "revolutionary names" received their historical names. Then the question arose about the renaming of Leningrad. The author of the idea was the Leningrad City Council Vitaly Skoybeda. On June 12, 1991, on the first anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR, a referendum was held in the city, in which almost two-thirds of the voters took part - and 54.9% of them voted for returning the name "St. Petersburg" to the city.
Image copyright RIA NEWS Image caption Demonstration of the nobility and merchants at the Winter Palace in Petrograd, on the day the manifesto was announced on the war with Germany. (The picture was taken in July 1914). Reproduction of 1963 by N. Pashina.
The first month of the World War was coming to an end. For Russia and its allies, it developed rather unsuccessfully. The Germans were approaching Paris. In East Prussia, the 2nd Russian Army was surrounded. On August 30, its commanding general from the cavalry, Alexander Samsonov, shot himself. Only successes in Galicia were pleasing, Russian troops were approaching Lvov.
But in St. Petersburg, an unprecedented patriotic upsurge continued. They defeated the German embassy on St. Isaac's Square, killed an innocent embassy waiter. They broke windows in the stores of German and Austrian citizens. All German newspapers were closed. The expulsion of Wagner from the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theater was explained as follows: many Russian singers lost their voices from singing Wagner, even recalls one case of suicide. The word "accountant" is everywhere replaced by the word "accountant". The owners of German surnames change them to Russian ones: Sabler became Desyatovsky, Irman - Irmanov, Gurlyand - Guryev, Stürmer wants to become Panin. It was time to think about renaming the capital of Russia.
An unprecedented patriotic upsurge continued in St. Petersburg. They defeated the German embassy, killed an innocent embassy waiter. They broke windows in the stores of German and Austrian citizens. All German newspapers were closed. It was time to think about renaming the capital of Russia.
The Czechs living in St. Petersburg were the first to come up with such an initiative: “Now it is quite timely and appropriate to recall the initiative of a long line of Russian figures and thinkers of the 18th and early 19th centuries, who were jarred by the German name of our capital. We, the Czechs, ask the public administration of the capital to enter with a petition to the Highest The name of the approval and henceforth obligatory use of the Russian name of the capital "Petrograd".
As later, on another occasion, Vladimir Lenin noted: "Russified foreigners always overdo it in terms of the truly Russian mood." Few noticed the initiative of the Slavic brothers. As it turned out, in vain.
On August 31, the highest order of Nicholas II "On the naming of the city of St. Petersburg - Petrograd" was published. It is believed that it was not the sovereign himself who initiated the new name of the capital, it was proposed by the Minister of Land Management and Agriculture Alexander Krivoshein.
But although the name "Petrograd" is also mentioned in Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman", the renaming did not arouse enthusiasm. An angry Zinaida Gippius printed the authors of the new name of the capital:
"Who encroached on the brainchild of Petrovo?
Who is the perfect handiwork
I dared to offend, taking away at least a word,
Dare to change at least a single sound?
<…>
What is the mediocre heart in you glad about?
Poor Slavs? Ile to that
What to "Petrograd" rhymes walking herd
Noisily clings, as if to his own?
Our city changed its name four times during its existence. None of them entailed such a collapse of misfortunes as the first of them. First, the name of the city was considered German, then all the Germans who faithfully served Russia, and then the ruling dynasty.
Especially frapped were the "World of Art", who, in fact, came up with the image of Peter's Petersburg anew, the first conscious patriots of the city. Their leader Alexander Benois: "Petersburg or Petrograd are not jokes at all, but this is the whole history of Russia, all its future, all its historical meaning. Free creative will or slavish obedience, movement forward, in breadth, into the world, or isolation by a Chinese wall, universality or locality, "metropolitan" or "provincialism".
Artist Konstantin Somov: "The defeat of our troops, destroyed two corps, killed Samsonov. Shameful renaming of St. Petersburg to Petrograd!".
Art critic, brother of the commander, Nikolai Wrangel: "Not to mention the fact that this completely senseless order, first of all, darkens the memory of the great reformer of Russia, but the publication of this renaming" in retaliation to the Germans "just today, on the day of our defeat, must be recognized highly inappropriate."
Our city changed its name four times during its existence: Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad - Petersburg. None of them entailed such a collapse of misfortunes as the first of them. First, the name of the city was considered German, then all the Germans who faithfully served Russia, and then the ruling dynasty. In 1915, on the battleship Gangut, Baltic sailors rioted to the cries of "down with the Germans", ""because of the Germans, our large ships do not operate", in 1916 they killed Grigory Rasputin as a "German spy", and in February 1917 one of the main the slogans of the masses was the overthrow of the German empress and the Germanophile emperor, who was ready to conclude a separate peace.
The name change turned out to be fatal, the most fruitful period of St. Petersburg in Russian history was fading into the past. As the historiosophist Nikolai Antsiferov wrote: “The deprivation of the city of its age-old name should have marked the beginning of a new era in its development, an era of complete merger with Russia, which was once alien to it. , and ahead of the masses, crushing the past ... ".
No need to change the names of the capitals and the music of the hymns. This is fraught.
