The Russian authorities want to change the names of Polish cities

The Russian Duma, in agreement with the Security Council, intends to change the names of Polish cities in response to the decision of the Polish commission to change the name of Kaliningrad to Królewiec. 

The plans of the Russians were reported on social media by Bartłomiej Wypartowicz, an expert from the Defence24 portal, according to RMF24.

The journalist referred to information circulating in Russian and Ukrainian Telegram profiles. According to these reports, Wrocław will be called Breslau, Gdańsk will be called Danzig, Łódź will be called Litzmannstadt, Szczecin will be called Stettin, Legnica will be called Liegnitz, Gdynia will be called Gdinen, Kraków will be called Krakau, and Warsaw will be called Warschau. This is intended as a response to the name change of Kaliningrad to Królewiec, emphasized Wypartowicz.

As reported by The Gaze, the replacement of road signs with the old name of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad Oblast has already begun on Polish roads following the decision of the government commission to approve the new names, Królewiec and Królewiecka Obwód respectively.

A total of 26 road signs with incorrect spelling of Kaliningrad and the Oblast are planned to be replaced by mid-June. Some signs will be completely replaced, while others will have the correct name affixed.

The cost of the entire renaming process is estimated to be around 60,000 zlotys (13,270 euros).

It should be noted that on May 9, the resolution of the Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names outside the Republic of Poland came into effect, recommending the use of "the city with the Russian name Kaliningrad" only with the Polish name "Królewiec." The Commission took into account that "the city currently known as Kaliningrad in Poland is known by its traditional name of Królewiec" and that the current Russian name is artificial and not related to the city or the region.

"The fact that a major city near the Polish border has been given the name of Kalinin, a criminal responsible, among other things, for the decision to mass-murder Poles (the Katyn massacre), has an emotional and negative character in Poland," the commission stated.

The Commission emphasized that geographical names, in addition to their identification function, can have a symbolic function and that "the current Russian name of the city is an element of the Russian symbolic space, imposed also on the audience outside the country."

It was also noted that "the events related to Russia's attack on Ukraine, the imposition of the so-called 'Russian world,' Russia's information war, force us to consider the issue of imposed names that provoke great controversy and encounter rejection in Poland."

A day later, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev proposed changing the names of Polish cities, stating that "there is no Poland, there is only the Duchy of Warsaw or the Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Federation".