The Bolsheviks sought to erase all street names associated with the tsarist regime and started to rename places in order to commemorate leading communist officials and heroes. That’s how many cities got streets named not only after Lenin, but also after various foreigners. Here are some of them.
1. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Germany
Monument to Karl Marx in Moscow
These ideological philosophers of communism had cult status in the USSR: their profiles were displayed on many Soviet state institutions, on postage stamps and on posters; while monuments to them can still be found in many Russian cities.
Marx has perhaps the largest number of streets named after him: there is a Marx Street in more than 1,000 cities and towns in Russia. Engels is a sure second, with his name gracing more than 400 streets throughout Russia. In addition, the Saratov Region has two towns named after Marx and Engels. These places on the Volga have had German settlements since the 18th century.
2. Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy
Monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi in Taganrog
In the USSR, the name of Italy’s national hero and one of the leaders of its national liberation movement was given to streets in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Rybinsk, Derbent and Taganrog. The latter is also home to Russia’s only monument to Garibaldi, the inscription on which reads: «In 1833, Giuseppe Garibaldi, while in Taganrog, vowed to devote his life to the liberation and reunification of his Motherland, Italy.»
Indeed, a young Garibaldi visited Taganrog on his trading schooner. The city even features in his memoirs: here he met a man from Liguria who told him about the “real state of affairs in the country” and inspired him to patriotic struggle. «I suspect Columbus never felt so happy having discovered America as I felt being among people who dedicated their lives to freeing their Fatherland.»
3. John Reed, U.S.
John Reed and his grave at the Moscow Kremlin necropolis
This American journalist witnessed the 1917 Revolution and the Civil War in Russia, and glorified the Bolsheviks in his book Ten Days That Shook the World. As a sign of their gratitude, the Soviet authorities buried him with honors at the Kremlin Wall. There are streets named after John Reed in several cities, including St. Petersburg and Astrakhan.
4. Charles de Gaulle, France
Statue of Charles de Gaulle in front of Cosmos Hotel in Moscow
In 2005, a monument to the French president was unveiled on the square outside the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow, not far from the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh). The square was named after de Gaulle in 1990. He was not a supporter of communism but became a friend and ally of the USSR when the two tried to create an alternative to NATO in Europe.