Ten Kyiv streets to be renamed
A popular television show, one of those viewing our compatriots through the lens of a hidden camera, recently featured a joke. They replaced a number of signboards in Kyiv’s Yerevanska Street, renaming it Schwarzenegger Street. To draw the attention of passersby to the dubious denotation, a man asked them for directions, pretending that he could not find an address. Clearly, the reaction from those willing to help varied greatly: the young found the fake city fathers’ decision funny, while older people remarked with grave seriousness that the Terminator is not a kind of hero worthy of having a street renamed in his honor. However, the consensus was that the current enthusiasm about renaming everything is going a little too far.
In the early 1990s Kyivans’ concern with the changes in toponymy was strong enough for them to put forth their views. Naturally, the innovations mostly wounded the self-esteem of the Left. Simultaneously, the Odesa joke that one might one day wake up find oneself living in Rio de Zhytomyr at the intersection of Wannafatback and Dontgotnone Streets was quite to the point.
In the view of Olena Donchenko, head of the Mass and Organizational Psychology Laboratory at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology, numerous changes of street names cause strong discomfort among most city residents. It’s difficult enough for them to get used to the new reality even without feeling strangers in their home town. In Ms. Donchenko’s view, loss of this feeling of being at home excites nervousness and criticism of those in power: don’t they have more acute problems to solve than replacing street signs?
The issue of renaming streets with all its consequences did not come out of nowhere. According to the Kyiv website golosiyivo.kiev.ua, at least ten Kyiv streets will change their names in the near future. According to Liubov Mazur, executive secretary of the Committee on Names and Memorial Signs, Artem and Smyrnova-Lastochkina Streets are first on the waiting list along with Leninhradska Square. For the latter three options are considered: Darnytska, Starodarnytska, and Pavlo Chubynsky Square. Artema is planned to become Sychovi Striltsi Street, Smyrnova-Lastochkina will be Voznesensky uzviz [Ascension Slope], and Gorky will be renamed for Volodymyr Antonovych. Moreover, Ms. Mazur believes some objects should be named for Les Kurbas, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and Solomiya Krushelnytska. When it came to financing, the committee was quite vague: everything depends on the street length, while one street sign will cost the city budget 17 hryvnias at most.
However, the practical experience in renaming streets shows that it is not only a matter of placards. The institutions residing at the renamed object suffer most from this triumph of historical justice. First, they have to change all outgoing documentation. Second, money spent for advertising turns out to be wasted, since the address specified in the ads no longer exists. A further question arises of drawing up and publishing new city guides, which had been solved after the Kyiv City Council proclaimed moratorium on renaming streets that expired last summer. In addition, imagine the elderly’s reaction to another expunging of the heroes of their time, even if only on the street signs.
Incidentally, the Kyiv City Council’s Administrative Department claims that the opinion of these people will be taken into account. The issue will be passed for district authorities’ consideration, with no time limits established. No decision will be made unless people support it.
Basically this is how they do it in Europe. For example, in Sweden a meeting of the Stockholm Communal Council proposed to rename the street where renowned children’s writer Astrid Lindgren had lived for 62 years in her honor. However, with the Swedes’ traditionally respective attitude toward their country’s history, it is up to Stockholm residents to make a final decision.
In Ukraine of the mid-1990s there was no such democracy. In spite of the Kyivans rallying at the Kyiv City Council building, in 1993 alone 27 streets were renamed here. In general, from 1991 through 2001, 89 streets received new names. However, in small towns one can still take a walk down, say, Lenin, Karl Marx, or Rosa Luxembourg Street. In Yevpatoriya they solved the problem differently: every house there features two signs, one bearing the Soviet street name and another the historical one.
Experts view the current situation concerning Kyiv toponymy more positively. Olena Tytova, scholarly secretary of the Ukrainian Society to Protect the Monuments of History and Culture, believes that Kyiv’s historical roots run very deep. Obviously, names like Lypska [Linden] or Shovkovychna [Mulberry] St. more befit our ancient city than Rosa Luxemburg or Karl Liebknecht. Simultaneously, sometimes the confusion caused by renaming can play a mean trick. For instance, once they decided to rename Sichnevoho Povstannia (January Uprising of the Bolsheviks against the Ukrainian Central Rada — Ed.) Street, where the Society to Protect the Monuments of History and Culture’s office is situated, to Ivan Mazepa St. The society immediately changed its outgoing data, but the Kyiv City Council never reached a final decision on the issue. Thus, now the organization virtually resides on two streets simultaneously.
Possible confusion and notorious lack of funds are the reasons why Ms. Tytova believes it would be better to wait a little with the renaming.
