A First: ‘Lenin’ Gets Out of Town
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MOSCOW — For the first time in the history of the Soviet Union, a town named after V.I. Lenin has been renamed.
The official Tass news agency said Wednesday that the Parliament of the Central Asian republic of Tadjikistan had decided that the town of Leninabad would revert to its former name of Khudzhand.
“Deputies think that the change of name is just a step to restoring historical justice and not an attempt to harm the memory of Lenin,” Tass reported.
The Tadjik Parliament had passed a law banning the practice of naming towns in the republic after people, it added.
Until recently, the founder of the Soviet state was revered as almost infallible. But he has come under criticism from radicals for his career before, during and after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Several cities and towns in the giant Russian Federation that were renamed in honor of leading Communist Party figures have reverted to their original names in the last few years.
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