The last years of Perestroyka saw a purge of geographic maps. The names of Bolsheviks or Soviet and party officials, as they were referred to in Soviet era encyclopedias, were removed from the maps en masse. The Gorbachev period was nearing its end when the process reached Yakov Sverdlov and Vladimir Zagorsky. Thus, Sergiev Posad and Yekaterinburg became part of Russia's geography once again, replacing Zagorsk and Sverdlovsk.

For those who do not know: the name Yekaterinburg does not refer to Yekaterina (Catherine) II, but rather to Catherine I who was Empress when the city was founded. As for the Soviet city of Zagorsk, it regained its original name – that of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, the founder of the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius. Sergiev Posad is not a regional center so the complicated issue of the name of the region did not arise. But it did with Yekaterinburg, and Sverdlov survived: the region still bears his name.