"Leader" of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") Denis Pushilin has issued an "order" to use the Soviet name "Stalino" in relation to the Russia-occupied city of Donetsk.
The document says that the name "city of Stalino" will be used along with the name "city of Donetsk" during events related to the anniversary of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), in particular, on Victory Day on May 9, according to the Ukrainian news outlet Novosti Donbasa.
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Donetsk was named Stalin in March 1924, two months after the death of Soviet leader Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin). "The [local] Executive Committee believes the symbol characterizing our great leader, comrade Lenin will be 'steel' [or 'stal' in Russian] and decided that the city of Yuzovka should be renamed the city of Stalin, and the district and the factory – Stalinsky," say documents of a plenary meeting of Yuzovka's District Executive Committee on March 8, 1924, protocol No. 7.
In 1929, its name was modified and became Stalino. In 1961, Stalino was renamed Donetsk.
The city was originally named Yuzovka in recognition of Welsh businessman John Hughes who in 1869 founded a steel plant and several coal mines in the region.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Leonid Pasechnik, the so-called leader of the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR"), a terrorist organization in Donbas, issued an "order" to use the Soviet name "Voroshilovgrad" in relation to the Russia-occupied city of Luhansk.
