Saigon Renamed 50 Years Ago: Symbol of 'Anti-Totalitarianism' After Socialist Collapse

The renaming of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976, fifty years ago, was not an isolated incident but a common phenomenon in countries undergoing significant political change. This mirrors the renaming of Leningrad to Saint Petersburg in September 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Historian Lyudmila Narusova described the return of Leningrad to its former name as "a complete turning away from totalitarianism towards a new, European-oriented ideology." She was the wife of Anatoly Sobchak, the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg after the city reverted to its old name. Narusova described her feelings at the time as "difficult to describe in words, filled with romantic visions and great hope that this was the first step on a great ladder." Before reverting to Saint Petersburg, the city on the Neva River had borne the name Leningrad for nearly 70 years, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution. Saint Petersburg was the original name given by Tsar Peter the Great when he founded the city in 1703, reflecting his "pro-European" policy. In 1914, Tsar Nicholas II renamed the city Petrograd. The reason for this was that Germany was Russia's main enemy in World War I, and the Russian emperor felt the suffix "burg" in the city's name had a German sound. The October Revolution of 1917 brought the Bolshevik communists to power, and the city retained the name Petrograd. On January 26, 1924, just five days after Vladimir Lenin's death, the USSR Congress renamed the city after the Bolshevik leader. Thus, Leningrad was born and existed throughout the history of the Soviet Union. The resolution of the All-Union Congress of Soviets on January 26, 1924, stated that the renaming was carried out after considering the proposal of the Congress of Soviets of Workers, Peasants, and Red Army Soldiers of Petrograd, which was supported by resolutions from organizations at all factories and enterprises in Petrograd. This meant that, according to the discourse of the All-Union Congress of Soviets, the renaming was done according to the will of the people, not the subjective will of the authorities. Along with the renaming of the city, a series of street names were subsequently given names of communist figures, replacing traditional names. This was not an isolated case of communist authorities naming places after their leaders. During Joseph Stalin's supreme leadership of the Soviet Union, his name was given to a series of cities in Russia and Eastern Europe: Stalingrad/Volgograd (USSR), Katowice/Stalinogród (Poland), Eisenhüttenstadt/Stalinstadt (East Germany), Brașov/Orașul Stalin (Romania)… The city of Donetsk also bore the name Stalin during the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The city of Chemnitz was once named Karl-Marx-Stadt when East Germany was a socialist country. The renaming of Saigon-Gia Dinh to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 occurred in a similar context. The Vietnamese Communist Party had just defeated the Republic of Vietnam. The name of the communist leader was used to name the city that had been the capital of a government just wiped out after the Vietnam War. The resolution issued at the 6th National Assembly session in 1976 stated: "Considering that the people of Saigon-Gia Dinh city have always expressed infinite reverence for President Ho Chi Minh and ardently wished for the city to bear his name;" and that Saigon-Gia Dinh city had fought with indomitable resilience and achieved many outstanding victories, therefore "it is worthy of the honor of bearing the name of the great President Ho Chi Minh." The resolution shows the authorities' determination to give the city a new name and the mention of the people's wishes as a way to legitimize the naming. In reality, this naming was imposed from above, without widespread referendums to gauge public consensus. When Lenin's name was given to Petrograd in 1924, the Soviet authorities stated that the naming was according to the will of the people and to honor the communist leader. The name also indicated the authorities' will to build socialism. When Ho Chi Minh's name replaced Saigon-Gia Dinh in 1976, the Vietnamese authorities made similar statements: it was proposed due to the people's reverence for the leader, to honor the leader's great contributions, and to affirm the victory of the revolution. Some place-name researchers observe that naming is often the first step in the process of occupying or establishing control over a space. In the book "The Power of Place: Bringing Together Geographical and Sociological Imaginations" (translated title), Professor of Geography and Environment David J. Robinson states: "Similar to the places they represent, names not only have a descriptive function but also carry symbolic meaning. Therefore, when a regime collapses, an empire disintegrates, or a new elite replaces the old one, the process of renaming often begins in many places." According to a 1984 study by Professor Gordon Pirie from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), place-naming is a social activity. "This stems from the fact that the naming process involves the participation of many subjects in the decision-making process or takes place in a specific social environment where there are official or unofficial conventions regarding the selection, assignment, and acceptance of names," he wrote. Referencing this observation in his 1996 study, Professor Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, concluded that the naming process not only has significance in terms of toponymy but also reflects social struggles to gain control over symbolic production methods in human-created spatial environments. It is a reality that, despite the will of those in power, the power of a leader, as well as a regime, is finite, no matter how powerful the leader and the regime he leads are. After Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev took leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he carried out extensive "de-Stalinization." Cities named after Stalin in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were restored to their traditional names. Activities and works glorifying Stalin were also dismantled. However, even though Khrushchev dismantled the cult of personality, he and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were still leading a Soviet regime, and there had been no change in the political system. For this reason, Leningrad retained its name until 1991, when the Soviet Union, as a socialist empire, disintegrated, and it reverted to its name Saint Petersburg. This renaming was carried out through a bottom-up process. In an article in June 1991, the Los Angeles Times interviewed Igor V. Ivanov, co-chairman of the Russkoye Znamya organization – a group leading the campaign to restore the...