Should Instytutska Street be renamed?

Kyiv authorities are trying to figure out how many Kyivites back and criticize the initiative to rename Instytutska Street to Heroiv Nebesnoi Sotni (Heroes of the Heavenly Sotnia). The KCSA announced public consultation on the draft order to this effect, to last until October 20. Over the first week of electronic voting, about 1,500 Kyivites took part in it. It is hard to say whether they are representative of the millions-strong community, but the majority opinion is so far against changing Instytutska Street’s historic name. If renaming has to happen, people want it to involve only the part of the street between Independence Square and the upper exit from the subway station Khreshchatyk, where a barricade was located and the most brutal battles were fought. Another proposal is to name a public garden or a street in new residential areas and to install a commemorative plaque or erect a memorial there. By the way, Kyiv is simultaneously holding the contest for the best memorial to the Heavenly Sotnia, and it can also appear in the same part of the historic city center. Would not it be too much?

The idea of renaming was officially announced at the first meeting of the newly elected city council. Historians, including local historians, expressed their unanimous protest then, as the name Instytutska also has historical significance, and the proposed renaming will cause issues, giving rise, for example, to ads “For sale: house in Heroiv Nebesnoi Sotni Street.”

However, despite these objections, the city administration continues to debate the renaming. Its public communications department must receive the report on the results of the public consultation by November 1. However, there are some “buts” to it. It is impossible to take into account every opinion, and some people will feel themselves offended and unheard in any case. Will the public opinion be respected at all this time? A former social activist, now head of the Kyiv City Council’s Commission on Culture and Tourism Ihor Lutsenko has grave doubts about it. He criticizes the actions of the KCSA and the Kyiv City Council as a community activist rather than as a councilor, and says that the system has not changed in the slightest. His example is his commission’s proposal to recreate a body in the city council that will be tasked with renaming. However, this initiative was not supported by the mayor and his deputies.

“Vitalii Klitschko’s clerks will disregard the public opinion. Discussion will be very active, but it lacks a proper institutional framework,” Lutsenko maintained. “To carry out normal expert assessments on the renaming issues, you have to create or recreate an appropriate commission, but they decided to do a PR coup by paying tribute to the heroes instead. Our commission can meet, make some decisions, but we are not the body which affects the mayor’s policies. All our initiatives are blocked within Klitschko’s office. I issued an appeal in the name of our commission and with the UDAR councilors’ support, proposing a way to protect our monuments, and natural ones in particular. It is suggested that every design has to be submitted to public consultation before the city issues planning guidelines for a development. This will at least make public decisions of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, because they are now issued in secret. However, it is a blind corner. I have no illusions about our ability to do anything.”

However, had the decision to change the name of Instytutska Street been made without community input, it would have its share of resentment and criticism all the same. Where should the limit of compromise be set? Experts reiterate that it is too early to engage in such symbolic things, while the former Euromaidan protesters believe that not all of their demands have been met, and the families of the fallen find it hard to decide whether they want a street in the downtown Kyiv to be named after their loved ones. They probably need other kinds of support now.