Towns and cities across Ukraine pressed hard to meet a November 21 deadline for identifying streets, squares, enterprises, and other places that fall under a sweeping "decommunization" law that came into force in May 2015.
By Volodymyr Noskov
Kharkiv is leading the fight across various Ukrainian towns and cities against the pressed hard deadline to meet a November 21 deadline for identifying streets, squares, enterprises, and other places that fall under a sweeping "decommunization" law that came into force in May 2015.
Local
communities were also submitting suggestions for new names to replace literally
thousands of ubiquitous toponyms like Lenin Avenue or Dzerzhinsky Square. In
addition, they were tasked with identifying monuments and artworks that are
suffused with Soviet symbols and ideology that should be dismantled under the
legislation.
Over the last
six months, the country has passed through a process of public hearings and
open debate that has revealed deep divisions over how to deal with the
lingering legacy of more than 70 years of communist rule from Moscow. In some
cases, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country where
significant parts of the population identify with Russia, the local authorities
have been less than enthusiastic in implementing the new law.
"I think
that in general our politicians have acted rather irresponsibly," said
Volodymyr Viatrovych, director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
"Many in their electorate, especially in local elections, are people of
the older generation, and instead of reporting to them the demands of the law
and the necessity of implementing it, they have been playing on their
sentiments. They tell them it isn't necessary and somehow they can resolve the
issue and that they are against renaming and that, if elected, they will do
what the voters say. Acting in this way is a direct violation of the law."
The
northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest with a population of
about 1.5 million, has been a case in point.
Heated
Process
Local hearings
on the renaming process there have been contentious and heated, with activists
who pushed to implement the law saying the government packed the events with
conservative, elderly pensioners and state-sector workers.
"It went
exactly as expected," wrote local writer Serhiy Petrov on Facebook
following a November 11 meeting at Kharkiv’s Kyiv district administration
building. "A whole roomful of budget-sector workers was herded in --
primarily teachers (for example, I saw several teachers and the director from
the school I went to). It was the typical exercise of administrative resources,
using teachers like slaves."
Petrov added
that he saw the teachers meeting after the hearing was over to be thanked by
city officials.
Other
public-sector workers were also out in force.
"We read
about the public hearing in the newspaper," a nurse who identified herself
as Olha told RFE/RL. "We work in Municipal Maternity Hospital No. 3. Why
are you provoking us? We came here on our own." Olha prevented the other
women in her group from speaking with journalists.
"I'd like
to emphasize that I don't think renaming streets is the main problem here right
now," she said.
Sources at one
city kindergarten told RFE/RL that employees there had been ordered to attend
the hearing.
Activists with
the nongovernmental Kharkiv Toponym Group carried out their own research into
the renaming issue.
"We
looked at 263 streets, which is many more than the official commission,"
said group activist Maria Takhtouloviy, who at one point was reduced to
shouting from the back of the hall. "Every name [we suggested] was well
grounded -- either a return to an old name or a new one that is based on local
geography or a specific local object or figure. This is work of a completely
different category than what was proposed by the city authorities."
'Dangerous'
Public Hearings
Two other
attempts to hold public hearings on the issue were cancelled when they
threatened to turn into riots. In one case, a group of unidentified young men
took over the podium and began a tussle.
Kharkiv Deputy
Mayor Ihor Terekhov took the microphone and said: "Considering the
situation, it appears it has become dangerous for all those in the hall. We are
closing the public hearings. Further actions will be taken according to the
law."
The
city's official list includes 173 toponyms with proposed changes, although some
of them seem to be an unsubtle effort to subvert the law.
The city, for
instance, proposes "renaming" the city's Oktyabr district -- which
honors the 1917 Bolshevik revolution -- as Oktyabr, in honor of the official
October 28 holiday marking the liberation of Ukraine from German troops in
World War II.
Officials propose
renaming the Dzerzhinsky district -- which honors the founder of the Soviet
secret police, Feliks Dzerzhinsky -- after his brother, Vladislav Dzerzhinsky,
a neurologist who was briefly a professor at Kharkiv University in 1915.
The Frunze
District, named in honor of Bolshevik military commander Mikhail Frunze, is to
be rechristened in honor of Timur Frunze, the son of Mikhail Frunze and a Hero
of the Soviet Union who died in combat in 1942.
"As far
as what you call the ambiguous context of these names, let's talk about the law
and how we are fulfilling the letter of the law," Deputy Mayor Terekhov
told RFE/RL. "There are people who deserve to be memorialized. Whether we
like it or not, the people of Kharkiv do not support renaming. And we will do
whatever we can not to let them down."
Less
Specific Soviet Names
A July poll by
a Kharkiv institute found that a majority of city residents oppose the
renaming. Likewise, a majority oppose naming city locations after the Heavenly
Hundred, as the Ukrainian government refers to the victims of police violence
during the 2013-14 Euromaidan uprising against then-President Viktor
Yanukovych. He fled to Russia in February 2014 and was replaced by a
pro-Western government, whose ties with Moscow have been further strained by
its takeover of the Crimea region and its military support for separatists who
control parts of two provinces south of Kharkiv.
In addition,
the city of Kharkiv has ruled that many places with less specific Soviet names
like "Proletariat" or "Communist International" do not fall
under the scope of the law and do not need to be renamed.
The Ukrainian
government in Kyiv has until February 21 to respond to the local lists, setting
up a likely collision between the central authorities and the administration of
Kharkiv Governor Hennadiy Kernes.
RFE/RL
correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report from Prague and RFE/RL
Ukrainian Service correspondent Levko Stek contributed from Kyiv
Copyright (c)
2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
