Penza, 21 September 2017. PenzaNews. Sergei Padalkin, head of the press office of the regional Communist Party committee, ex-coordinator of "Left Front" in the Penza region, said that the initiative to rename Sovetskaya square to Sobornaya announced by the deputy of the Penza City Duma Alexei Shuvarin was vandalism.

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"The deputy Shuvarin's suggestion about renaming the Sovetskaya square to Sobornaya is pure vandalism. On the 100th anniversary of the Great October it is a double sacrilege. All issues about renaming should be decided by residents in referenda but not by City Duma deputies," he wrote on his Facebook profile on Thursday, September 21.

Sergei Padalkin stressed that communists strongly condemn the suggestion.

"Hands off the Sovetskaya square! It is not only the cathedral but also tombs of Red Army soldiers, the monument to Revolution Fighters that are located there," the head of the press office of the regional Communist Party committee added.