One Ilyich and three Stalinodars: four attempts to rename Moscow

Renaming cities, streets, parks, sidewalks was one of the main entertainments of the Soviet nomenclature. Thousands of toponyms appeared on the map, glorifying party figures, which descendants have forgotten without any regret. And the names of those who would hardly ever be forgotten became the names of entire cities. It turns out that even the original name of the capital was going to be ruined. Yes, not once, but four times.

For the first time, Moscow was taken to be renamed three years after Lenin's death — in February 1927. The petition, which was placed on the table of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTSIK) Mikhail Kalinin, was signed by more than 200 officials. They offered to call the capital Ilyich. The argument stated that "it was Lenin who founded free Russia." 

A temporary mausoleum erected on Red Square after Lenin's death

The probability of topographic reform was quite high. Moreover, the experience of renaming a large city already existed: Petrograd became Leningrad some five days after the death of the leader of the world proletariat. However, the decisive word was for Stalin, who already had unlimited power at that time. Joseph Vissarionovich considered that two cities in the country in honor of Lenin is too much.

After 11 years, the People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov developed a stormy activity. Stalin took political competitors out of the way with an iron hand, and Nikolai Ivanovich's career could end at any moment (which, in general, soon happened). So Yezhov decided to appease Stalin.

On his instructions, subordinates prepared a special project on renaming Moscow to Stalinodar. There was an appendix in the document, in which the sweet-tongued statements of the workers in favor of renaming were cited. But Stalin did not appreciate this sycophancy. The Presidium of the Supreme Council was informed that the head is against it.

The next time the topic came up after the victory in the Great Patriotic War. This triumph in the minds of the masses was bound to be associated with the genius of Generalissimo Stalin. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that there were those who wanted to consolidate the victory by assigning a new name to the capital. But this time the project did not go far. Several hundred petitions were received from the proletarians, but the official request was never formed.

The last — at least to date - attempt to rename the capital was made after Stalin's death in March 1953. This obsequious idea has engulfed entire organizations, institutions and enterprises. Bags with relevant appeals came to Moscow.

Moreover, at that time it was seriously proposed to rename the whole republic: Georgia - into the Stalinist SSR. And the whole country was going to be called the Union of Socialist Stalinist Republics. As for the next Stalinodar, it did not grow together with him due to the fact that the political situation soon changed and the debunking of the cult of personality began.