The majority of respondents in Volgograd (70%) were against renaming the city, 25% of respondents would support such a decision by the authorities. This is evidenced by survey data from the independent sociological society Russian Fields (available on RTVI).
“Even among seniors, who should be positive on this issue, 52% disagree with such a move, 44% would support the name change,” the company said.
74% of residents surveyed believe that the name Volgograd is more suitable for the city, 18% chose Stalingrad and 5.2% Tsaritsyn.
As for the reasons for changing the name, 22.1% of residents believe that this is done to raise the level of patriotism, 21.4% – for money laundering for corruption, and 20.4 % associate the name change with a reminder of a heroic deed during the Great Patriotic War. War.
The Russian Fields survey was conducted on March 28, the method is a telephone interview, a sample of 1,031 respondents.
On the need to rename Volgograd to Stalingrad at the end of January declared former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov later said that there are no plans in the Kremlin to announce the renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad as part of Vladimir Putin’s trip to this city, scheduled for February 2.
On February 1, the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research published the results of a survey of Volgograd residents, according to which two-thirds (67%) of the city’s residents opposed its name change. .
According to VTsIOM, the main argument against renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad turned out to be the budgetary costs of such a process – this was indicated by 21% of the city’s residents surveyed. 12% of respondents indicated that they are not in favor of the return of the old name, because they do not see the point of it.
Despite this, on March 27 in Volgograd begin a poll on holding a referendum on renaming the city to Stalingrad. According to Alexander Strukov, co-chairman of the public council responsible for studying the opinion of the population on the return of the historical name to the city, the chairman of the Volgograd City Council of Veterans Alexander Strukov, the initiative groups will work in the parts of town until the end of the week.
Until 1925 Volgograd was called Tsaritsyn, after which it was renamed Stalingrad. The current name – Volgograd – the settlement received in 1961 as part of the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult.
