The Mind Creative
The wooden houses of Irkutsk
It is a measure of Kirov’s popularity, however, that Stalin named
a city after him. Even more so that the name change wasn’t
reversed, while even Leningrad has regained its pre-Soviet name
of St Petersburg. Stalingrad reverted to Volgograd long ago, in
1961, after Stalin was officially denounced by his successors,
though not to its original name of Tsaritsyn.
About 500 km to the south-southwest of Kirov and Perm,
respectively, are two contiguous Muslim regions of Russia,
Tataristan and Bashkorostan. The Republic of Tatarstan, whose
capital is Kazan, has a population of just under four million, of
whom 55% are estimated t