The Verkhovna Rada registered a bill №7253 on decolonization and de-Russification of toponymy, against the background of Russia’s war against Ukraine,
KYIV. UkraineGate , 6 , April , 2022 | War News
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The authors are a group of deputies, including from the “Servants of the People”, in particular Fedor Venislavsky.
According to the initiators, the draft law is aimed at decolonizing toponymy and streamlining the use of geographical names and symbols of the state that committed armed aggression against Ukraine in the settlements of Ukraine.
The purpose, in particular, is called:
- preventing the recurrence of such crimes in the future,
- elimination of the threat to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of Ukraine,
- purification and rehabilitation of domestic public space from imposed communist-foreign ideologues,
- establishment of historical justice and full restoration of Ukrainian historical and national toponymy,
- modernization of the names of the newest Heroes in the fight against the enemy.
It is proposed to prohibit naming geographical objects names that glorify, perpetuate, promote or symbolize:
- the occupying state or its landmarks, monuments, historical and cultural sites, cities, dates, events,
- its figures who carried out military aggression against Ukraine and other sovereign countries,
- state totalitarian policies and practices related to the persecution of the opposition (opposition figures), dissidents and others for criticizing the totalitarian Soviet and totalitarian Russian regimes, including citizens of Ukraine living in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or temporarily staying in the occupying state and became victims of persecution by the Russian repressive authorities.
“The draft law and detailed analysis of geographical names in our settlements were prepared even earlier to substantiate the need to adopt the act, but its registration as an official bill was prevented by the war. certain amendments to the law and convincingly confirmed the need for immediate adoption of changes to the toponymic legislative field of Ukraine, which should ensure decolonization and streamline the use of urbanonyms, “- said in an explanatory note.
The authors of the bill believe that its adoption and implementation:
- create a clear legal basis for the final completion of decommunization and the decisive decolonization and de-Russification of our toponymy,
- will stimulate the initiative of local self-government bodies to release it from the imperial-Russian and Soviet-communist garbage as soon as possible, and to establish Ukrainian identity in our living space.
Source: Ukrgate
