Keywords
critical toponymy
street renaming
cross-regional study
decommunisation
decolonisation
Abstract
Rural toponyms have a long history of research with an emphasis on their historical and cultural significance. However, insufficient attention has been paid specifically to the ideologically driven naming and renaming of rural places. This gap becomes even more noticeable concerning the post-socialist and, especially, post-Soviet spaces, representing one of the modern hotspots in the critical study of place names. In the paper, based on the information on the naming and renaming of rural streets in the three Ukrainian administrative regions, we analyse the recent reconfiguration of the contemporary system of Ukrainian rural hodonyms from a political standpoint. It has been demonstrated that rural street names in Ukraine are involved in the political life of the country almost as much as their urban counterparts, and their post-Soviet reconfiguration in cross-regional perspective generally resembles the processes and patterns relevant to the urban street names. The role of rural hodonyms as political instruments and symbolic markers should not be underestimated, at least, for certain geographical and socio-cultural contexts. At the same time, the active involvement of rural street names in the political life of the country raises concerns about their preservation as a part of local heritage and markers of local identity.
References
Afanasiev, I. (2020). Renaming of streets in Ukrainian regional centers during 2010–2019: offensives and compromises. Ideology and Politics, 16(2), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.36169/2227-6068.2020.01.00024
Alderman, D., & Inwood, J. (2013). Street naming and the politics of belonging: Spatial injustices in the toponymic commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Social and Cultural Geography, 14(2), 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2012.754488
Basik, S. (2020). Place names as a political instrument in the post-Soviet realm: Introduction. Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, 10(3), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.26881/jpgs.2020.3.01
Basik, S. (2023). Encountering toponymic (geo)politics in the post-Soviet states. Introduction. In S. Basik (Ed.), Encountering Toponymic Geopolitics: Place Names as a Political Instrument in the Post-Soviet States. (pp. 1–28). London: Routledge.
Buchstaller, I., Fabiszak, M., Alvanides, S., Brzezińska, A. W., & Dobkiewicz, P . (2023). Commemorative city-texts: Spatio-temporal patterns in street names in Leipzig, East Germany and Poznań, Poland. Language in Society, 53(2), 291–320. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404523000040
Conneely, R., & Mahon, M. (2015). Protected geographical indications: Institutional roles in food systems governance and rural development. Geoforum, 60, 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.01.004
De Lange, J. (2019). The role of toponymy in identifying cultural heritage: a case study of place names in the Bushmanland, Northern Cape. In H. Beyer, M. Brenzinger, T. du Plessis, P.E. Raper (Eds.), Critical toponymy — Place names in political, historical and commercial landscapes. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Place Names 2017 Jointly organized by the Joint IGU/ICS Commission on Toponymy, the UFS, and UNAM Windhoek, Namibia, 18–20 September 2017. (pp. 97–110). Sun Media Bloemfontein.
Deepadung, S. (2003). Toponyms in the western region of Thailand. Manusya Journal of Humanities, 6(2), 31–65. https://doi.org/10.1163/26659077-00602002
Fedinec, C., & Csernicsko, I. (2017). (Re)conceptualization of memory in Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity. Central European Papers, 1, 46–71. https://doi.org/10.25142/cep.2017.003
Geršič, M., & Kladnik, D. (2016). House names and field names as an important part of Slovenian Cultural heritage: A case study of the Lese Cadastral Municipality upper Carniola, Slovenia. Nomina Africana, 30(1), 1–26.
Giraut, F., & Houssay-Holzchuch, M. (2016). Place naming as dispositif: Toward a theoretical framework. Geopolitics, 21(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2015.1134493
Gnatiuk, O. (2018). The renaming of streets in post-revolutionary Ukraine: regional strategies to construct a new national identity. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Geographica, 53(2), 119–136. https://doi.org/10.14712/23361980.2018.13
Gnatiuk, O. (2022). Nation-building by virtue of the local Renaissance: “Exemplary” decommunization of street names in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. In S. Basik (Ed.), Encountering Toponymic Geopolitics: Place Names as a Political Instrument in the Post-Soviet States (pp. 49–65). Abingdon: Routledge.
Gnatiuk, O., & Glybovets, V. (2020). Do street status and centrality matter for post-socialist memory policy? The experience of Ukrainian cities. Geographia Polonica, 93(2), 139–161. https://doi.org/10.7163/GPol.0167
Gnatiuk, O., & Homanyuk, M. (2023). From geopolitical fault-line to frontline city: changing attitudes to memory politics in Kharkiv under the Russo-Ukrainian war. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, 72(3), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.15201/hungeobull/72.3.3
Gnatiuk, O., & Melnychuk, A. (2023). A case study of de-Russification of Ukrainian hodonyms: Rigged trial or justice restored. Names, 71(4), 40–55. https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2023.2599
Hrytsak, Ya., & Susak, V. (2003). Constructing a national city: A case of Lviv. In J. J. Czaplicka & B. A. Ruble (Eds.), Composing Urban History and the Constitution of Civic Identities (pp. 140–164). Baltimore — London.
Karoêva, T. (2016). Vulicì Vìnnicì: z ìstorìï dekomunìzacìï. Dovìdnik. [Streets of Vinnytsia: From the history of decommunization: Databook]. Vìnnicâ: Vìndruk.
Karoêva, T. (2017). Z dosvìdu robočoï grupi ŝodo “dekomunìzacìï” publìčnogo prostoru Vìnnicì: poglâd ìstorika. [Abstract of practical activity of a workgroup on decommunization of public area of the town of Vinnytsia: Historian’s view]. City: History, Culture, Society, 1, 196–206. https://doi.org/10.15407/mics2017.02.196
Kocherhin, I. (2022). Decommunisation in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro in 2014–2019. In T. Kuzio, S.I. Zhuk, & P. D’Anieri (Eds.), Ukraine’s Outpost: Dnipropetrovsk and the Russian-Ukrainian War (pp. 144–163). Bristol: E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/publication/ukraines-outpost-dnipropetrovsk-and-the-russian-ukrainian-war/
Kovalov, M. (2022). When Lenin becomes Lennon: Decommunization and the politics of memory in Ukraine. Europe-Asia Studies, 74(5), 709–733. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2022.2078478
Kovtûh, S. (2017). Socìoonomastičnì aspekti perejmenuvalʹnih procesìv v Ukraïnì. [Socionomastic aspects of renaming processes in Ukraine]. Наукові записки Тернопільського національного педагогічного університету ім. В. Гнатюка. Серія: Мовознавство, 27, 160–165. http://dspace.tnpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/8379
Kuczabski, A., & Boychuk, A. (2020). Decommunization of urban toponymy in Ukraine: Causes and consequences. Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, 10(4), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.26881/jpgs.2020.4.02
Kudriavtseva, N. (2020). Reconfiguring identities within the cityscape: Ideologies of decom munization renaming in Ukraine. Ideology and Politics Journal, 15(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.36169/2227-6068.2020.01.00004
Kudriavtseva, N., & Homanyuk, S. (2020). Contested names in the toponymic landscapes of post-Soviet space. Introduction. Ideology and Politics, 15(1), 4–10. https://doi.org/10.36169/2227-6068.2020.01.00001
Loth, C.-R. (2019). Place names, place, and place-related identities in the linguistic landscape of rural South Africa. In H. Beyer, M. Brenzinger, T. du Plessis, & P.E. Raper (Eds.), Critical
toponymy — Place names in political, historical and commercial landscapes. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Place Names 2017 Jointly organized by the Joint IGU/ICS Commission on Toponymy, the UFS, and UNAM Windhoek, Namibia, 18–20 September 2017. (pp. 145–158). Sun Media Bloemfontein.
Mezenko, H. (2019). Names of topographic objects within settlements as a unit of Belarusian toponymic terminology: Problems of splitting and integration. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio FF Philologiae, 37(1), 149–156. https://doi.org/10.17951/ff.2019.37.1.149-156
Moran, W. (1983). Rural space as intellectual property. Political Geography, 12(3), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/0962-6298(93)90057-E
Palmberger, M. (2017). Nationalizing the streetscape: The case of street renaming in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In R. Rose-Redwood, D. Alderman, & M. Azaryahu (Eds.), The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place (pp. 168–184). Abingdon: Routledge.
Portnov, A. (2013). Memory wars in post-Soviet Ukraine (1991–2010). In U. Blacker, A. Etkind, & J. Fedor (Eds.), Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (pp. 233–254). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rìznik, O. (2007). Toponìmìčnij landšaft Kiêva ì problemi deržavnoï toponìmìčnoï polìtiki [Toponymic landscape of Kyiv and problems of the national toponymic politics]. Ukraïnsʹkì kulʹturnì doslìdžennâ. https://web.archive.org/web/20240610054154/http://www.culturalstudies.in.ua/statti_1_2007.php
Rose-Redwood, R., & Alderman, D. (2015). Critical interventions in political toponymy. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 10(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v10i1.879
Rose-Redwood, R., Baird, I.G., Palonen, E., & Rose-Redwood, C . (2022). Monumentality, memoryscapes, and the politics of place. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 21(5), 448–467. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v21i5.2266
Rusu, M.S. (2021). Sequencing toponymic change: A quantitative longitudinal analysis of street renaming in Sibiu, Romania. PLoS ONE, 16(5), e0251558. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251558
Rusu, M.S. (2024a). Modeling toponymic change: A multilevel analysis of street renaming in postsocialist Romania. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 114(3), 591–609. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2023.2292805
Rusu, M.S. (2024b). Street naming practices: A systematic review of urban toponymic scholarship. Onoma, 56, 269–292. https://doi.org/10.34158/ONOMA.56/2021/14
Schenk, G. (2023). Renaming Kyiv’s streets amid the Russian war of invasion: The politics of history between “decommunization” and “derussification”. The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: History, 64, 140–169. https://doi.org/10.26565/2220-7929-2023-64-07
Schuppener, G. (2019). Multiple place names and their political aspects on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. In H. Beyer, M. Brenzinger, T. du Plessis, P.E. Raper (Eds.), Critical toponymy — Place names in political, historical and commercial landscapes. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Place Names 2017 Jointly organized by the Joint IGU/ICS Commission on Toponymy, the UFS, and UNAM Windhoek, Namibia, 18–20 September 2017 (pp. 1–14). Sun Media Bloemfontein.
Shevel, O. (2011). The politics of memory in a divided society: a comparison of post-Franco Spain and post-Soviet Ukraine. Slavic Review, 70(1), 137–164. https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.70.1.0137
Shevel, O. (2016, January 11). Decommunization in post-Euromaidan Ukraine: Law and practice. Ponars Eurasia. https://www.ponarseurasia.org/decommunization-in-post-euromaidan-ukraine-law-and-practice/
Son, H. (2015). The loss of place names and suggestions for its prevention in Korea. In S. Choo (Ed.), Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Toponymy (pp. 117–138). Seoul: Kyung Hee University Press.
Šulʹgan, O. V. (2017). Ojkonìmìâ Ukraïni XX stolìttâ: eko- ta socìolìngvìstičnì aspekti [Oikonymy of Ukraine in the 20th century: ecolinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects] [Abstract of the dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences]. Zaporìzʹkij nacìonalʹnij unìversitet.
Titarenko, A. A. (2013). Mìsce urbanonìmìv u zagalʹnìj klasifìkacìï onìmìv. Fìlologìčnì studìï: Naukovij vìsnik Krivorìzʹkogo deržavnogo pedagogìčnogo unìversitetu, 9(2), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.31812/filstd.v9i2.470
Vuolteenaho, J., & Berg, L.D. (2009). Towards critical toponymies. In L. D. Berg, J. Vuolteenaho (Eds.), Critical Toponymies: The Contested Politics of Place Naming (pp. 1–18). Farnham: Ashgate.
Yankson, E. (2023). Street naming and political identity in the postcolonial African city: A social sustainability framework. Journal of Urban Affairs, 45(3), 685–609. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2166839