Ancient Rostov in the Yaroslavl region can be given a new name – Rostov the Great. In general, this is its historical name, but it is not officially fixed and now the full name of the city is Rostov.
At the same time, on pre-revolutionary postcards, it is designated both “Rostov the Great” and “Rostov of the Yaroslavl province”. The station of the Northern Railway is now called “Rostov-Yaroslavsky”.
This is one of the oldest cities in Russia, 862 is considered the year of its foundation. Once the center of the Rostov Principality, then one of the main cities of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality in the Ipatiev Chronicle of 1151, it is mentioned precisely as Rostov the Great.
Gradually, Rostov lost its importance, during the time of the Russian Empire it was a county town, after the revolution it became a district center, and now it is the administrative center of the Rostov district of the Yaroslavl region.
Rostov has preserved a large number of monuments of Ancient Rus, avoided the destruction associated with wars, and in Soviet times entered the Golden Ring tourist route. Movies were shot here many times, including Leonid Gaidai’s film “Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession”.
Pokrovskaya street and boulevard in Rostov, Yaroslavl province. Postcard from the beginning of the 20th century.
The initiative to officially change the name of the city from “Rostov” to “Rostov the Great” was made more than once. Now the current head of the administration, Sergei Tikhomirov, proposes to fix the name “Rostov Veliky”; he has been in this position since last year.
If everything happens officially, it will sound like this: “The urban settlement of Rostov the Great.” Obviously, these ugly designations with urban districts, urban and rural settlements were invented by some native of the prison system, where the name “colony-settlement” has long been used. Well, either a native of the colony itself.
I would like to vote to abolish this nonsense.
And the conditions for voting in Rostov are as follows: all Rostov citizens at the age of 14 can vote for the name of the city, while electronic voting is not carried out; a signature is required on a special piece of paper. They can be obtained in various places in the city – theater, shopping malls, market, stadium.
As you know, in Russia there is another Rostov – Rostov-on-Don, it is younger, but much larger than Rostov, which is located on Lake Nero. For a long time in our country there were two Stavropols: in the Caucasus and in the Volga. As a result, only the current regional center remained, and the Volga Stavropol was partially flooded during the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir and in 1964 it was renamed Tolyatti. And these are far from all examples with the same names from a huge country.
Shooting of the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession”. 1972 Photo: from the Rodina archive
The Rostov administration points to the example of another ancient Russian city – Novgorod, which has been officially called Veliky Novgorod since 1999. True, many still continue to confuse it with Nizhny Novgorod, which was called Gorki for most of the Soviet period, and was called it returned its original name in 1990.
Whether Rostov the Great will become Great will be officially known after the end of the vote in October.
