One of Stalin's closest allies Kliment Voroshilov (left) and Joseph Stalin (right), 1930s. Photo: public domain. Under Soviets, the city of Luhansk was renamed Voroshilovgrad to honor Voroshilov while Yuzovka (now Donetsk) bore Stalin's name as Stalino.
RUSSIA OCCUPATION ADMINISTRATIONS IN THE CITIES OF LUHANSK AND DONETSK IN THE EAST OF UKRAINE ORDERED TO USE AND PROMOTE THE STALIN-ERA NAMES OF THE CITIES – VOROSHILOVGRAD AND STALINO -AT THE WWII-RELATED EVENTS. WHAT MAY SEEM A RIDICULOUS DECISION AT FIRST GLANCE, IS A PART OF THE FULL-ON PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN THAT CONTINUES SINCE 2014 IN ORDER TO MENTALLY SEPARATE THE RESIDENTS OF THE REGION FROM THE REST OF UKRAINE AND KEEP THEM LOYAL TO RUSSIA [
Not so much "keep" as to continue efforst to make them loyal to Russia. RAM]
.
“Voroshilovgrad” and “Stalino”
On 16 April, Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian occupation administration of Luhansk, signed a
decree
named “About using the name Voroshilovgrad City” that orders to use the Soviet-era name of Luhansk on the days of the year related to what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War – the Soviet-German fighting differentiated by the Soviet historians as something much more significant than the rest of the second World War in order to diminish the role of the USSR as a German
ally
at the beginning of the war.
The preamble of the document gives the following reasoning for the decision,
“in order to preserve the historical memory and in light of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.”
On 23 April the “head of Donetsk People’s Republic,” Maksim Pushilin, completely
mirrored
Pasechnik’s document to order the use of the name Stalino – the Stalin-era designation of Donetsk – three times a year. The text was copied word-by-word with mere changes such as replacing the Luhansk-related terms with Donetsk’s and saying in its last paragraph that the decree “shall enter into force from the date of its signing” rather than “from the date of its publication” as the order issued in occupied Luhansk puts it.
The first paragraph of both documents orders
“to establish as a symbol of the city of Luhansk (or Donetsk in the “DNR” version – Ed.) the name ‘Vorohilovgrad (Stalino) City’ to be used together with the name ‘Luhansk (Donetsk) City’ during the conducting of the republic’s and city’s events that mark the commemoration dates of history of the Luhansk (Donetsk) People’s Republic and the city of Luhansk (Donetsk), related to the Great Patriotic War.”
According to the decrees, these back-in-the-USSR days are
:
- 9 May – “the Day of Victory in the Great Patriotic War,”
- 22 June – “the Day of Memory and Mourning – the day when the Great Patriotic war began,”
- [WAIT! 23 August is not included – really? Hey, that was the day in 1939 that Hitler and Stalin signed onto their non-aggression pact, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty the secret protocols of which defined the territorial spheres of influence Germany and the Soviet Union would have after their combined invasion of Poland to START WORLD WAR II as allies!!!! Why not include that day? I suppose it takes a bit of wind out of the “great patriotic war” sail to acknowledge that the Kremlin was aligned with the Nazis in starting the war. RAM]]
- 14 February – “the Day of Liberation of Luhansk (Voroshilovgrad) from the German-Fascist invaders” or 8 September for the “Liberation of Donetsk (Stalino).”
The “LNR ministry of culture, sports, and youth” and “DNR ministry of youth, sports, and tourism” are obliged to arrange activities in order to popularize the “historical name Voroshulovgrad (or Stalino) City.” And the “ministries of information” should organize “information campaigns to support the popularization of the historical name” on the mentioned days, and ensure extensive coverage of the events backed by the “youth ministries.”
Why they pull Stalin-era names out of mothballs now
Putin’s Russia inflated the late-Soviet idolization of the “great victory” of the USSR over Nazi Germany in WWII to nearly religious-cult proportions, turning it to a cornerstone of Russia’s national identity formation. Every year Russia comes up with various victory-cult-related events that culminate in so-called “
immortal regiment
” marches across the world and in the military parades in several Russian cities, including the main show-off on Moscow’s Red Square. The Luhansk and Donetsk occupation authorities parrot such marches and parades every year, rolling Russian heavy military equipment through central streets of the local capitals.
However, this year Russia had to
postpone
the 9 May parade to an undefined “later date” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with the Kremlin’s decision, the Russian-run statelets
did
the same
almost simultaneously within two following days.
The military parades in Luhansk and Donetsk in front of the large crowds comprising Russian supporters and forcibly driven public employees work in a threefold way as a means of propaganda.
Firstly, the picture of mass celebrations shows to locals that Russia has absolute control of the occupied region and that they themselves are just like Russia. [
Hello! We cannot let it be lost in addressing either Russia’s war against Ukraine or the West’s strange emphasis on the so-called Minsk peace process that Putin does really want peace. His objective includes the domination of Ukraine and just as importantly the people of Ukraine. Over-and-over he has made it clear he does not believe or accept that there is such a thing as a Ukrainian – they are all Russians in his small, paranoid, warped mind. And his intent is eventually to dominate Ukraine and her citizens and re-institute the Kremlin’s old Soviet Russification program to wipe out any suggestion of the existence of the older and non-imperialistic Ukraine and Ukrainian culture. They must be made to be Russian. RAM
]
Secondly, the same visuals of “people’s support” for the occupation regimes, when they are disseminated in Ukrainian media – no matter what text messages accompany them – serve to convince that the Ukrainians living in the “people’s republics” are no longer part of Ukraine, and establish doubts among the audience that there is even a need to de-occupy the region.
And, finally, the same picture promoted by the Russian media for international audiences contributes to Russia’s long-standing effort to legalize its occupation authorities internationally as legitimate representatives of the local population.
The paranthetical comments above are those of Mr. McConnell and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or the FOUN.
