Putin renames Volgograd Airport to ‘Stalingrad’ to honour WWII legacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree officially renaming Volgograd International Airport to Stalingrad, reviving the Soviet-era name in a move framed as a tribute to the country’s wartime legacy.

The document, published on the Kremlin’s website on Tuesday, said that the airport will now bear the “historical name of Stalingrad” to immortalise the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.

Volgograd, formerly known as Tsaritsyn until 1925, was renamed Stalingrad in honour of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The city became synonymous with one of the most pivotal and brutal battles of the Second World War. In 1961, during the campaign to dismantle Stalin’s cult of personality, the city was renamed Volgograd by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.