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During WWII, Hitler got 600,000 Nazi troops kettled ("Der Kessel" ir was called even) at Stalingrad-all because the city was named for Stalin. Neither Hitler nor Stalin could let go of it, forcing a fight to the death over a position thr Nazis could have bypassed on the way to the oil fields.

The whole war may have been decided there-and had the city had its current name of Volgograd the outcome if WWII (my father's war) may have been entirely different.