What’s in a name? In Russia, it’s the legacy of a revolution

From Central Asia to Latin America, people continue to bear the revolutionary names that caught on in the wake of Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

Revolda (Child of the Revolution), Mels (short for Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin), Engels and Stalina are just some of the names that live on a century later.

“My father always remained loyal to Marxist-Leninist ideals. This is why he named me Mels,” says 67-year-old Mels Yeleussizov, president of a Kazakh ecology society.

In neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, 28-year-old culture ministry spokesman Marlen Solyanoy also bears a name that combines Lenin with Marx. “For me, it’s not about liking or not liking your name: my parents chose it and it needs to be respected,” he said.

In Albania, AFP meets the 66-year-old director of Tirana’s Academy of Albania Studies, Marenglen Verli — whose first name combines Marx, Engels and Lenin. “The name Marenglen was very popular in the 1950s [in Albania],” Verli says.

“I have never thought about changing it. During the revolutionary era, there were worse ones than mine.”

He cites the name ‘Melset’, short for Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Enver (after Albania’s communist leader Enver Hoxha) and Tito (Yugoslavia’s leader).

After the fall of communism in Tirana in the early 1990s, some Albanians changed their revolutionary names: Lenin became Luli and Marenglen became Maringlen to sound more Albanian.

Since the 1930s, many Latin American leftist activists named their children in honour of the Russian revolutionary leaders.

That is the case with Ecuador’s current socialist president Lenin Moreno, the famous Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez known as Carlos the Jackal, or the Brazilian musician Lenine, whose full name is Osvaldo Lenine Macedo Pimentel.

“For my father, the most important fact was that Lenin was a brilliant person,” Mexican university professor Lenin Martell, 46, tells AFP. “This name opened many doors for me.”

—AFP