Volgograd in Russia
Volgograd originated with the foundation in 1589 of Tsaritsyn at the confluence of the Tsaritsa and Volga Rivers.
The original name of the city, Tsaritsyn, was first recorded by English explorer Barry in 1579, though he did not refer to the city, but to the island on the Volga. The origin of the name is usually traced back to the Turkic “Sary-Su” (yellow water) or “Sary-Sin” (Yellow Island). The date of the founding of the city is considered to be July 2, 1589, when the fortress Tsaritsyn was first named in a royal charter. The fortress was located slightly above the confluence of the Volga River Queen on the right bank.
In 1961, the name was changed from Stalingrad to Volgograd (“Volga City”) as part of Nikita Khrushchev’s programmer of de-Stalinization. This was and remains somewhat contentious, given the fame of the name “Stalingrad” and its importance in wartime remembrance. There were serious proposals to revert the name to “Stalingrad” during Konstantin Chernenko’s brief administration in 1985. There remains a strong degree of local support for a reversion but intermittent proposals have been not yet accepted by the Russian government. On May 21, 2007, the CPRF or Communist Party of the Russian Federation obtained an important success in the Volgograd mayoral election. Communist candidate Roman Grebennikov was elected as mayor with 32.47% of the vote. Grebennikov is Russia’s youngest mayor of a regional capital.Error processing request
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