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Change in a graffiti inKyiv from Russian to Ukrainian spelling of a pun. The original Russian"не парковать" ("do not park") was first changed toне панковать ("do notpunk", meaning "do notmess around"), later changed to Ukrainian "не панкувати".
The process manifests itself in the renaming of toponyms named after Russian statesmen and cultural figures, or those that are believed to reflectRussianism and the Russian worldview, or are otherwise associated withRussia. Also part of the process is the dismantling of objects of the Russian rule (e.g., plaques, signs, monuments, busts, and panels). As of April 8, 2022, according to a poll by the sociological groupRating, 76% ofUkrainians support the initiative to rename streets and other objects whose names are associated with Russia.[2][3]
The process began with thecollapse of the Soviet Union, but since the issue ofdecommunization was a much bigger problem, derussification received relatively little attention, after 2014, the two processes were closely intertwined and initially they took place mostly in a spontaneous and unsystematic way. As thedecommunization process in Ukraine had almost been completed by 2022, the derussification process intensified after theRussian invasion of Ukraine. In villages and towns, street names were changed and Soviet-Russian monuments were demolished.[6] Not only architectural structures, but also street names related to Russia were de-Russified. Changes were made inLviv,Dnipro,[7]Kyiv[8] andKharkiv.Ivano-Frankivsk became the first city in Ukraine to be completely free of Russian place names.[9]
In June 2022, the city ofKyiv held an electronic consultation to select Ukrainian names with which to rename streets and squares bearing Russian names. 6.5 million Ukrainians took part in the consultation.[10]
Minister of Culture and Information PolicyOleksandr Tkachenko stated that the derussification of Ukraine will take place naturally[11] and that "it's time to say goodbye to the symbols of the Russian-imperial, Soviet ideology forever."[12] He also noted that theGovernment of Ukraine approved the project of the document "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Protection of Cultural Heritage": there will be legal grounds for the removal of cultural heritage monuments from the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine, which is a symbol of the Russian imperial and Soviet totalitarian politics and ideology.[12]
On October 17, 2016, theMinister of Infrastructure of UkraineVolodymyr Omelyan instructed his staff to ridBoryspil International Airport and other airports in Ukraine of Russian language and communist names. According to Omelyan, all information on electronic billboards and signs or announced by loudspeakers must be in Ukrainian and English only. "This is not only a question of using the state language – it is a question of self-respect", the Minister said.[13]
On May 23, 2017, the "Rules for placement of advertising media in the city of Kyiv" adopted by theKyiv City Council came into force. From now on, all advertising in the capital must be in Ukrainian.[14]
On October 5, 2017, the Kyiv City Council adopted a decision "On measures to ensure a regional language policy in the city of Kyiv" and established that in the city of Kyiv Ukrainian is the language of work, record keeping and documentation of all local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations of communal ownership, and the language of official announcements and messages.[15][16]
On November 2, 2017, theZhytomyr Oblast Council adopted a decision on the de-Russification of the service sector in the region. In the decision "On overcoming the consequences of Soviet occupation in the language environment of Zhytomyr region", it is recommended to use Ukrainian as the language of work, record keeping and documentation of local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations of communal ownership. In addition, advertisements, signs, posters, notices and other forms of audio, photo, video advertising products and price tags must be in the Ukrainian language.[17]
On December 12, 2017, theCherkasy City Council adopted a decision "On measures to ensure the regional language policy in the city of Cherkasy", according to which Ukrainian is the main language in all spheres of life in the city. The menu of restaurants, advertising, signs and posters must be in Ukrainian.[18]
On February 15, 2018, the session of theKropyvnytskyi City Council adopted the draft decision "On measures to ensure the regional language policy". The decision states that on the territory of the city, all names of institutions, enterprises, organisations, signs, posters, public notices, advertisements must be exclusively in the Ukrainian language. In addition, all catering establishments must have a menu in the national language, which they are obliged to offer to visitors in the first place. Staff must communicate with customers primarily in Ukrainian and switch to another language only at the request of consumers.[19]
On February 16, 2018, theLviv City Council approved the resolution"On regulation of the language of service to citizens in the sphere of service provision, trade and provision of information about goods and services in the city of Lviv". The resolution recommends catering and service establishments to provide services in Ukrainian as well as English. The document also establishes that all signs, posters, notices and price tags in Lviv shall be in the state language.[20]
On May 31, 2018, the President of Ukraine,Petro Poroshenko signed the Decree "On urgent measures to strengthen the state status of the Ukrainian language and promote the creation of a unified cultural space of Ukraine." The decree aimed at ensuring compliance with constitutional guarantees regarding the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language in all spheres of public life throughout the territory of Ukraine, strengthening its consolidating role in Ukrainian society as a means of strengthening state unity, taking into account the need to protect the national linguistic and cultural and linguistic information space, supporting the development of national culture, encouraging the processes of its integration into the European and world cultural space.[21]
On October 4, 2018, 261 deputies of theVerkhovna Rada voted for the draft lawOn supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language (No. 5670-d) in the first reading. Preparation of the draft law for the second reading lasted about four months. During this time, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Culture and Spirituality worked out more than two thousand amendments that came from people's deputies.[22]
On May 14, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine rejected draft resolutions that blocked the signing of the previously adopted law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language. Chairman of the Verkhovna RadaAndriy Parubiy signed the law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language.[24]
On May 15, 2019, PresidentPetro Poroshenko signed the Law On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language[25] and the following day the law was published byVoice of Ukraine. The law enters into force in 2 months from the date of publication.[26]
On February 28, 2018, theConstitutional Court of Ukraine issued a decision regarding the unconstitutionality of the 2012Kolesnichenko-Kivalov Law, effectively canceling it.[27] The law had acknowledged Russian and other minority languages as regional languages of Ukraine, thus allowing their use in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceeded 10% of the population.[28]
On April 12, 2018, theMykolaiv Oblast Council rejected a motion on revoking the status of the Russian language as a regional language, granted in accordance with the repealed Kolesnichenko-Kivalov Law, which had recently been annulled by the Constitutional Court.[29]
On April 25, 2018, theOdesa City Council, by a majority of 50 of its 53 members, decided not to amend its regulations on the implementation of the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Language Law, despite the fact that this law had recently been annulled by the Constitutional Court.[30]
On December 6, 2018, deputies of theKharkiv Oblast Council voted to cancel the decision to grant regional status to the Russian language.[31]
On May 6, 2019, the Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court canceled the decision to grant the Russian language in the city ofDnipro the status of a regional language.[32]
On June 7, 2019, the Donetsk District Administrative Court canceled the decision to grant the Russian language in the Donetsk region the status of a regional language. The applicant is a well-known fighter for the rights of Ukrainians in Ukraine, associate professor of the programming department of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Svyatoslav Lytynskyi.[33]
Various village councils of the Luhansk Oblast canceled the decision to grant the Russian language the status of a regional language: on September 26, 2019, the Holubivsk village council; on October 1, 2019, the Novovodiansk village; on October 3, 2019, the Epiphany village council; on November 4, 2019, the Makeiv village council; on November 7, 2019, the Novomykilsk village council; on November 21, 2019, the Mykhailo village council.[34]
On October 23, 2020, the Zaporizhzhia District Administrative Court canceled the decision to grant the Russian language in the city of Zaporizhzhia the status of a regional language.[35]
On December 4, 2020, the Odesa District Administrative Court canceled the decision to grant the Russian language in theOdesa Oblast the status of a regional language.[36]
On December 14, 2016, the Standing Committee of theKyiv City Council on Culture, Tourism and Information Policy approved the draft decision "On renaming avenues, boulevards, streets, alleys, clarifying the names and returning the historical name in the city of Kyiv", which proposes to modify the names of two streets and an alley. The changes concern only the spelling of proper names.[37]
On February 22, 2018, the Kyiv City Council decided to de-Russify the names of nine streets and alleys in Kyiv.[38]
On December 6, 2018, the Kyiv City Council renamed Novorossiysk Square to Chernihivska, and Tolstoy Street to Volodymyr Bets Street.[39]
On March 27, 2023, Kyiv City Council renamed the city'sYuri Gagarin Street (was named after Soviet/Russian cosmonaut) toLeonid Kadeniuk Avenue (Kadeniuk was the firstastronaut of independent Ukraine)[40]
On May 18, 2023, the Kyiv City Council renamed 26 more city objects, including theKyiv Metro stations Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho ("Leo Tolstoy Square") toPloshcha Ukrainskykh Heroiv ("Square of Ukrainian Heroes"), Druzhby Narodiv ("Friendship of Nations") toZvirynetska, and the station under construction Prospekt Pravdy ("Pravda Avenue") toVarshavska.[41] These renamings meant that 314 city objects had already received new names.[41]
On February 4, 2016, theVerkhovna Rada launched an activedecommunization and de-Russification policy by adopting the Resolution "On renaming certain settlements and raions", which renamed a number of settlements named after Russian statesmen.[42]
On July 1, 2017, theChernivtsi City Council renamed the Moscow Olympics street to theSich Riflemen street.[43]
On October 30, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada returned the historical name ofPereiaslav to the city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi. This was done under request of the city council.[45]
On October 9, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Resolution "On Renaming Certain Territories and Objects of the Nature Reserve Fund".[46]
In October 2022, theKrasnohrad City Council renamed their (among others) Pushkin andYuri Gagarin streets.[48]
On March 21, 2023, theVerkhovna Rada outlawed toponymy with names associated with theRussian Empire and theSoviet Union.[4] The law's explanatory note stated it is "a ban on assigning geographic objects names that glorify, perpetuate, promote, or symbolize the occupying state."[4] The following month, PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law.[5]
On April 26, 2022, the bronze sculpture of the Soviet-eraPeople's Friendship Arch of a group of Ukrainians and Russians was dismantled in Kyiv. Interestingly, the head of the sculpture, which symbolized a Russian, fell off.[56]
On August 1, 2023, work began to replace the Hammer and Sickle of theMotherland Monument inKyiv by the Ukrainian coat of arms, which ended in August 6, and rechristened asMother Ukraine.[61][62]
On November 15, 2017, in response to insinuations about the possible sale of theNational Cultural Centre of Ukraine in Moscow [ru], a group ofVerkhovna Rada deputies asked for the closure of the Russian cultural centres in Ukraine claiming that they were used to provide a legal cover for the subversive activities of Russian special services.[66]
During a meeting on June 16, 2022, a working group of theMinistry of Education and Science of Ukraine decided, in connection with the invasion of Russian Federation into Ukraine, to remove more than 40 works by Soviet and Russian authors from school textbooks.[67]
On February 7, 2023, millions of books, mostly in Russian language, were removed from the country public libraries.[68]
On May 3, 2023 (in its second reading), the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine On the Protection of Cultural Heritage", which legalized the removal of "Soviet and imperial cultural monuments" from the state register.[69] The law was known as "Anti-Pushkin law".[69]
^Reznik, Vladislava (2018). "Language Policy in Independent Ukraine: A Battle for National and Linguistic Empowerment".Language Planning in the Post-Communist Era. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 179.doi:10.1007/978-3-319-70926-0_7.ISBN978-3-319-70925-3.
