Russia’s Bizarre New Campaign to Define Its National Identity
A Kremlin-backed project to rename the country’s airports after historic Russian heroes tries to answer: What is Russia?
More than 1,000 miles from Moscow, in a city near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, residents have taken up an unusual cause: demanding that they be allowed to name their local airport after a famous rock star from the city.
In October, fans of Egor Letov, a musician who passed away 10 years ago, started a Facebook page as part of a campaign to change the name of the airport in Omsk, a city of just over 1 million people, to Letov International Airport. “Our name is Letov!” a rallying cry for the movement on social media. One blogger a mock-up of what the airport would look like, featuring giant portraits of the bearded, long-haired singer greeting travelers upon arrival. But Russian authorities, that Letov’s fans were a “marginal
