Question by Sarah D: What were the thoughts of the community in St. Petersburg when the name was changed from Leningrad?
Hello!
I am a college student in Portland, OR, USA and I am writing a paper on changing the names of towns and cities in Russia. I need to have a personal interview for my paper, and would love to talk to someone who was living in St. Petersburg when the name was changed from Leningrad. I am just trying to get personal opinions on what the thoughts of the community were at the time, and even an email of a few sentences would be great! Please contact me if you have any questions, or would like more information about this project.
I hope you have a great day, and thank you for your time!
Sincerely,
Sarah
Answers and Views:
Answer by Natalia D
I have not lived in a city where the name of the city was changed but did live in the city where every street name was changed after the break up of USSR. It became extremely inconvenient and confusing. The government changed the addresses right away and no one could remember the street names. It took forever to find something where before you knew exactly where you were going. It has been more than 15 years since that happen and people still name some streets by their old names.
Regarding St. Petersburg I’m sure some people were happy others were not and some did not care. I know that there were protests done by the old communists to keep the old name especially when people started to feel what life is going to be like without USSR. But majority of the people had other problems like finding the money to feed their family and waiting in lines for 4-7hours to get that loaf of bread and sugar that was given out only by “coupons” than to care about the name change. I personally think that St. Petersburg sounds more classy, it’s the historic name of the city and should have remained that instead of being changed to Leningrad, it’s just like the communists to change everything.
Sorry could not help you directly with your paper. Good luck.
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BelKa says
I don't leave in Russia but i'll try to answer your question. This city was buit by Peter and earlier it was named after Peter. but when cimmunist came they thought this city is beautiful. they didn't like Peter but they liked Lenin and they decided to name it after him. now there is a new goverment that thinks that communist were bad. they want to renew old traditions and they changed the name of the city.
wschmerz says
My relatives live in St.Petersburg. When the city was named Leningrad they called themself "piterzy" (people from Peter) and the short for Leningrad was "Piter", not "Lenin" or whatever. So they were not unhappy, when the official city name was changed back to St.Petersburg.
Also, St.Petersburg is the name from those days, when the city was the capital of Russia. It was renamed to Leningrad and lost its capital status almost simultaneously. So, renaming the city back to St.Petersburg was like returning a part of the city's glory back to it.