Dilatory Domiciles

Even before Peter the Great built his famed northern capital astride the River Neva and christened it with his own name, it was an old Russian custom to honor a hero by calling a town after him. With the renaming of Petrograd in honor of Lenin, the Bolsheviks picked up the custom and carried it on with such vigor that a Russian geography now reads like a combination Who's Who, Social Register and Roll of Honor.

Since the October Revolution at least ten towns, one city and three rural regions have been named for Stalin. Molotov has been immortalized in the names of four Russian towns, one region, countless streets, and a square in Soviet-dominated Hungary. The cities of Sverdlovsk, Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg), Kuibyshev (formerly Samara) and Kirovabad carry the names of four more Soviet faithfuls across the land.

Unlisted so far in this geographical Debrett's has been the name of Andrei Zhdanov. Cominform chief, who died last August. But last week that omission stood corrected. From the Kremlin had come orders that the following were to be renamed in Zhdanov's honor: 1) the town of Mariupol, where he was born; 2) the Tagansky District of Moscow; 3) the Primorsky District of Leningrad; 4) Rozhdestvenka Street in Moscow; 5) the Izhora Shipbuilding Works; 6) Moscow's Exemplar Printing Works; 7) the Krasnoye-Sormovo Metal Works; 8) the Vladimir Tractor Works; 9) the Leningrad State University; 10) the Naval Political Academy in Leningrad; 11) the Pioneers' Palace in Leningrad; 12) the Krasnoselskaya Division of the 45th Guards.

And just in case he should be forgotten, it was ordered that a biography and the writings of Andrei Zhdanov be promptly published.

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