History
The usage of the term "hero-city" is dated to articles in Pravda as early as in 1942. The first official usage of the title is dated by May 1, 1945, when Joseph Stalin issued his Supreme Commander Order #20 commanding to fire salutes in "hero cities Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and Odessa."
On June 22, 1961 (20th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War) the term "Hero City" was applied to Kiev in the ukases that awarded Kiev the Order of Lenin and introduced the Medal "For the Defence of Kiev".
The statute of the title was officially introduced on May 8, 1965 by the ukase of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of USSR, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. The same day ukases were issued about awarding the cities mentioned above: Leningrad, Volgograd (former Stalingrad), Kiev, Sevastopol, and Odessa. (However traditionally for these cities the anniversaries of being Hero City correspond to the dates mentioned earlier.) Additionally, Moscow was declared Hero City and Brest declared Hero Fortress.
Subsequent awards were issued as follows:
- September 14, 1973: Kerch and Novorossiysk.
- June 26, 1974: Minsk
- December 7, 1976: Tula
- May 6, 1985: Murmansk, Smolensk
In 1988 the issuance of the award was officially discontinued.
On April 5, 2005 the State Duma of Russian Federation passed the law in the first reading about the introduction of the honorary title "City of Military Glory" (Город воинской славы). Potential candidates are places of fierce battles: Oryol, Rzhev, Yelnya, Voronezh, Vyazma, and others.
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