While Russia is destroying our cities and killing Ukrainians by the thousands, we continue to walk down Peter's Street and Moskovsky Lane in Kyiv, and hide from shelling on Malomoskovskaya Street in Kharkiv. In Mariupol, which has been virtually wiped out by the Russian horde, there are streets called Moskovskaya, Nevskaya, Kronshtadskaya, Narvskaya, Murmanskaya, Bryansk, Orelskaya, Kurskaya and a bunch of others. Although it is more correct to say WERE.

In the 8th year of the war, which has entered such an active phase, this sounds like an oxymoron. But this is not an artistic device, but a harsh reality - a consequence of the 70-year Soviet past and centuries of Russian imperial narratives.

However, now 92% of Ukrainians support the idea of renaming streets whose names are associated with Russia and Russians in honour of the heroes who are currently defending Ukraine.

How was decommunisation carried out in Ukraine?

Back in 2015, the Verkhovna Rada passed the law ‘On the Condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine and the Prohibition of Propaganda of Their Symbols’. After that, more than 990 settlements and 26 districts, almost 52,000 other place names, 75 educational institutions, 33 railway facilities, 2 seaports were renamed in Ukraine, and about 2,500 monuments and memorials containing propaganda for the totalitarian regime were dismantled. Most of these renamings were carried out in Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, as totalitarian communist place names were deliberately localised in those regions of Ukraine where collectivisation, repression and the Holodomor were most severe.

But at the same time, our cities continue to have many vestiges of the Soviet and imperial past.

For example, there are still at least 90 streets, lanes and squares on the map of Kyiv with ‘Russian’ names: Moskovska in the centre, Piterska, Bilhorodska and Bryanska on Solomianska, Chervonotkatska, and Marx near Zhulyany and Engels on Kharkivska. And dozens of similar ones.

Even the monument to Kyiv and Moscow, erected in 2001 in the Holosiivskyi district during the seven years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, was not demolished, allegedly ‘due to the lack of a defined dismantling procedure’ until the end of last year.

After Russia's attack on 24 February, Ukrainian cities began to strive for de-Russification. For example, in March, the city council of Nizhyn decided to rename Moskovska Street in honour of Stanislav Proshchenko, a fellow countryman and ATO veteran who died in a battle with the Russian occupiers.

But as we can see, decommunisation is not enough. For centuries, Russia has considered Ukraine nothing more than its colony, emphasising this in every possible way in political, legal, social and cultural manifestations. At the same time, its main task was to make everyone, and especially us, believe in Russian greatness and our inferiority. Therefore, the next step after decommunisation should be decolonisation.

How do you plan to carry out decolonisation in Ukraine?

50 MPs have registered draft law No. 7253 to ban the use of geographical names and symbols of the state and figures of the state that committed armed aggression against Ukraine in Ukrainian settlements. The Institute of Legislative Ideas analysed the new initiative.

This document was developed long before the Russian attack. However, it has undergone some changes during the latest revisions. The draft law aims to decolonise place names and regulate the use of Russian geographical names and symbols in Ukrainian settlements.

The draft law amends Article 5 of the Law ‘On Geographical Names’, which prohibits the assignment of names to geographical objects that glorify, perpetuate, promote or symbolise

• the occupying power;
• its prominent, memorable, historical and cultural places, cities, dates, events;
• its leaders who carried out military aggression against Ukraine and other sovereign countries;
• figures who carried out state totalitarian policies and practices related to the persecution of the opposition (opposition figures), dissidents and other persons for criticising the totalitarian Soviet and totalitarian Russian regimes, including citizens of Ukraine who live in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or temporarily stayed in the territory of the occupying state and became victims of persecution by Russian repressive bodies.

The authors of the draft law are convinced that its adoption will reduce the influence of the Russian Federation on the domestic policy of our country and the worldview of its citizens. It will also accelerate the de-Sovietisation and de-Russification of the country.

However, there is one caveat: the draft law only introduces a ban on the use of geographical names and symbols of the Russian Federation in Ukrainian settlements. However, it does not provide grounds for renaming in case of a ‘hostile’ name.

Therefore, it would be logical to supplement Article 5 of the Law ‘On Geographical Names’ with a provision that would define the need to bring the name of a geographical object in line with the requirements of this Law.

Decolonisation is an extremely important process of getting rid of the totalitarian past and avoiding speculation on history and culture. After all, every street or small village named after, for example, a Russian commander continues to work in the enemy's favour, albeit in a socio-cultural context. We must now do everything in our power to ensure that the Russian invaders never appear in our settlements or in their names again.

‘The Institute of Legislative Ideas continues to analyse the legislation adopted during the war and make sure that each law is another step towards Ukraine's victory.

Source: Liga.net