For two years, not only numerous monuments to Lenin and Zhukov have been actively disappearing from the maps of Ukrainian cities, but also all possible markers of imperial culture. The new decolonization law gave cities until the end of April to rename streets, parks, stops, and other toponyms.

The Transparent Cities program studied the decolonization of toponyms in 83 cities of 23 regions of Ukraine between March 2022 and May 28, 2024.

The analysis covered 80 cities of the adapted study of city transparency and 3 city military administrations (Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, and Kherson), whose experiences had been studied in previous years, to find out how different cities complied with the derussification requirement. Some municipalities were actively changing the names; others delayed the process until the last days.

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Currently, cities are faced with the task of deciding on the renaming of toponyms associated with russia.

This process might be met with resistance on the part of the citizens, and the authorities will need to make an additional effort to explain why it is important to decolonize toponyms. In other cases, residents might have to put pressure on local authorities to rename those streets, squares, or boulevards that symbolize the empire. Be that as it may, choosing the most successful version of the new name, which will meet the public demand or the historical features of the area, is impossible without a dialogue between the authorities and the community.

And finally: renaming toponyms is not only about fulfilling the requirements of the law or about changing some address plates to others. The key idea of this process is to fill the streets of our cities with new meanings and values, and to honor those who fought for the Ukrainian State and glorified it with their actions.

 

Let’s find out how the authorities and residents can carry out derussification of streets, squares, and other city toponyms smoothly.

“Ukrainians have just begun to control their cultural space fully. Weeding out the crushed weeds, throwing out foreign stuff, marking coordinates, building hierarchies,” convinces Vira Aheyeva, the Ukrainian literary critic and the author of the book “Behind the Scenes of the Empire.” And the full-scale war of russia against Ukraine played a decisive role in this.

In the course of 2022, settlements were deprived of names associated with russia or its personalities. In 33 out of 50 cities, more than 2,200 toponyms have been renamed.

Despite the persistent demand of society to rename russian toponyms (more than 65% of Ukrainians are in favor), the processes of derussification are accompanied by debatable cases and criticism of citizens. Partly because it is a relatively new phenomenon, and there are no established procedures and mechanisms.

The Transparent Cities program of Transparency International Ukraine decided to study the key problems that accompany the derussification of toponyms. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, we have been studying the process of renaming toponyms, and we also contacted the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and Taras Kremin, the Commissioner for the Protection of State Language, for clarifications.

Below, we will share the answers to 8 important questions about derussification, which are most often discussed or misunderstood.

1. Why is derussification important?

Toponyms glorifying russia or its representatives outside the empire have only one goal — to spread russia’s influence through the propaganda of the “russian world.”

The names of our streets, squares, and boulevards bear the names of those who often have nothing to do with Ukraine, its scientific, political, or cultural life. It is important for modern Ukraine to get rid of strange russian names because we have our own prominent figures, including cosmonauts, writers, and military leaders who fought for the Ukrainian state.

As of August 2022, the 10 most popular russian toponyms in Ukraine are dedicated to the following figures:

• Yuri Gagarin;
• Oleksandr Pushkin;
• Ivan Michurin;
• Valery Chkalov;
• Maksim Gorky;
• Mikhail Lermontov;
• Oleksandr Suvorov;
• Volodymyr Mayakovskyi;
• Oleksandr Matrosov;
• Volodymyr Komarov.

It is significant that the toponyms glorifying Pushkin and Gagarin are also among the 10 most common names — along with T. Shevchenko, Lisova, and Lesya Ukrainka.

In this regard, our opinion is consonant with Taras Kremin’s considerations. He calls derussification an element of decolonization and is convinced that toponyms that reflect social orientations and values should not serve as tools for achieving the imperial goals of russia.

In addition, in Ukraine, the imperial policy of linguocide of the Ukrainian language was implemented for centuries — Ukrainians were killed as its carriers, the Ukrainian language was forcibly replaced by russian in all spheres of public life (russification). Thus, a significant number of toponyms were the result of the purposeful eradication of the Ukrainian language; the strengthening of national identity is impossible without abandoning the cultivation of imperial values and narratives.

Finally, the language commissioner adds that Ukraine has become a victim of the full-scale armed aggression of russia, which relies on the concept of the “russian world.” And it is based on the use of the russian language, culture, and distorted history to promote imperial interests, political destabilization, weakening resistance to aggression.

Russia is committing war crimes, genocide, mass repression of Ukrainians, in particular, hiding behind the prevalence of its language. Therefore, it is fair and natural that today everything related to russia is perceived hostilely. 

2. How to convince Ukrainians of the importance of derussification?

Among some Ukrainians, there is an opinion that Pushkin did not attack Ukraine, so the monuments to him need not be dismantled.

But the majority of our population favors derussification of space in cities and villages. Thus, 65% of Ukrainians support the renaming of streets containing russian or Soviet names, and 71% are in favor of dismantling monuments associated with russia.

The number of renamed toponyms during 2022 also speaks in favor of derussification — there are almost 10,000 of them. The experience of Lozova is indicative, where, almost immediately after the deoccupation, residents stated the need to rename more than 100 russian and Soviet toponyms.

Taras Kremin believes that the glorification of the figures of russian culture in our country was an element of the insidious policy of russification of Ukrainians, the neglect of Ukrainian culture. 

According to him, today, only 7% of Ukrainians believe that the works of russian authors should be studied in schools, as before. The rest suggests either not to study russian writers at all, or not to distinguish them from among other world authors. The question arises: why Pushkin, and not Byron or someone else? Pushkin is important for russian culture, not Ukrainian.

3. What about toponyms referring to russians who fought for the rights of Ukrainians?

(e.g., Andrei Sakharov)

During decolonization, we refuse to glorify those who are not connected with Ukraine or were hostile towards it. Instead, the physicist Andrei Sakharov actively defended the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of concentration camps.

Significantly, when in 2022, Ivano-Frankivsk residents wanted to rename the street named in his honor, a number of political prisoners, in particular Mustafa Dzhemilev and Yurii Shukhevych, appealed to the city council with a request to abandon this initiative.

The Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language is convinced that the figure of Andrei Sakharov is primarily associated with the defense of universal and democratic values, for which, among other things, Ukraine is fighting today. Therefore, one needs to have solid grounds for the decision to rename the streets in his honor.

4. Who should be the initiator of decolonization: the city authorities or the public?

According to the law, the local authorities are responsible for the decolonization process, but the initiative can also come from the residents.

For example, in Mukachevo, the renaming took place on the initiative of the head of the city council, Andrii Baloha. At the same time, in Kyiv and Sumy, active residents often create petitions to decolonize certain toponyms, which are then considered at council meetings.

Taras Kremin is convinced that the leader in the issue of decolonization should be public authorities and local self-government. At the same time, it is often the public that initiates and insists on adopting appropriate decisions. The government and the activists have to work together.

5. Is it a violation of the renaming process when citizens vote for some toponyms, and the city council ultimately approves others?

The Transparent Cities program is convinced that holding public consultations will allow choosing the most suitable name that will meet the demand of residents or historical features of the area. In case of controversial or high-profile situations, we advise cities to hold a re-voting or additional consultations, as it was in Kamianske or Chernihiv.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory also insists that official procedures recommend local self-government bodies to adopt decisions considering the opinion of the public. The Institute also recommended that local self-government bodies consult specialists — historians, local historians, etc. — and take their opinion into account.

At the same time, the Institute of the National Memory states that the law does not contain clear obligations. But if citizens want to preserve the old names and do not agree with the renaming, which must be carried out in accordance with the law, the local authorities do have to comply with the law.

The list of obligations and powers of the toponymic commission is determined by each city council separately. As a rule, the functions of this body are reduced to advisory, namely, the formation of proposals that are submitted for discussion with citizens and the processing of residents’ proposals. The powers of the chair of the commission are also determined when establishing a toponymic commission at the local level. The final decision on renaming toponyms is made at the meeting of the council.

The Institute also reminds that the Law of Ukraine “On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and the Decolonization of Toponymy” was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada only in March 2023 and will come into force 3 months after signing by the President. So far, local self-government bodies, when removing russian imperial symbols from public space, have been guided primarily by the laws “On Local Self-Government” and “On Naming Legal Entities and Property by Names (Aliases) of Natural Persons, Dates of Anniversaries and Holidays, and Names and Dates of Historical Events.”

At the same time, since July 2022, the Expert Council has been operating under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, which also provides recommendations, in particular, it processes controversial cases. The recommendations of the Expert Council can be found on the Institute’s website.

6. How can the public influence the city authorities if it is dissatisfied with the decision on toponyms?

In case of disagreement with the decisions adopted by the city council, residents can:

• submit a local initiative with a request to reconsider the “problematic” toponym;
• request council members to introduce the issue of renaming certain toponyms in the agenda for reconsideration;
• submit petitions demanding to cancel the decision to rename toponyms or to initiate a reconsideration of names for individual toponyms.

By the way, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Transparent Cities program created a sample petition that can be referred to local governments.

And after the termination of martial law, which may limit the rights of citizens to peaceful assembly, residents will also be able to influence the decisions of the city council through public hearings and reporting meetings.

Taras Kremin also considers the influence through media, social networks, direct communication with local council members to be effective — that is, the publicity. This is appropriate, considering the ban on assemblies — to preserve democratic principles and decision-making procedures in local communities. And after publications in the media, a bad decision can always be changed if there is a convincing argument and correct communication.

7. Is it necessary to hold public hearings and discussions in the process of decolonization of toponyms?

According to Transparent Cities analysts, public consultation is a prerequisite for preparing and adopting decisions on derussification. As of autumn 2022, 26 out of 41 city councils that carried out derussification consulted the public.

The Institute’s experts note that according to the law, the names of people, anniversaries and festive days, names and dates of historical events are assigned to legal entities and objects of property rights only after public discussion and with the consent of the labor collective. Another law, which will come into force in June, spells out the need to consider the position of the public and academics.

Public consultations are mandatory, in particular, for making quality decisions that will be approved by the community. But at the same time, it is important to offer an understandable and convincing concept — the principles by which new names for toponyms are proposed. Taras Kremin states that public consultation procedures should not become an instrument of containment or “chaoticization” of the entire process.

8. What should the mechanism for engaging residents in consultations look like?

During the decolonization of toponyms, cities not only hold public hearings, but also use various electronic tools to select names — such as Google forms (Kolomyia, Kropyvnytskyi), mobile applications (Kyiv), online platforms (Korosten and Chervonohrad) or chatbots (Kamianske). 

We should add that the tools are not always convenient or the voting time is not commensurate with the number of toponyms to be renamed. Therefore, we expect the city councils to consider the shortcomings and try to avoid them in the future.

The Institute responds that there is an approved procedure for public consultations, and it provides for various forms of such communication. The choice of a specific form or mechanism is the decision of local self-government bodies.

Public consultation may take the form of:

• a public discussion (conferences, Internet/videoconferences, forums, public hearings, roundtables, meetings, or public meetings);
• electronic consultations with the public;
• a study of public opinion (survey, questionnaire, content analysis of information materials, focus groups, telephone “hotlines,” monitoring of comments, reviews, interviews, etc.).

Communication with the public in the form of public discussion, electronic consultations with the public, and the study of public opinion on the same issues can be carried out simultaneously.

Yes, renaming toponyms that were russified in the past is a long and complex process. However, now, our country is courageously fighting for its territory against the enemy, and our streets definitely should not contain the cultural code of a strange country, which, moreover, for several centuries has acted aggressively against our independence.

The derussification of public space is obviously important, but it is an extensive issue that requires active engagement of both local authorities and residents. However, if all parties are convinced of the need to find the best solution — everything can be organized carefully and in accordance with the requirements of the law!

Every citizen should have access to quality services such as education, housing, health, social and municipal services. Especially acute is this need in times of war, crisis, and emergencies. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine was no exception: new payments for IDPs or housing were added to the existing requests of residents.

Now, people require services that can be provided online, without significant time costs and searching for the right institutions in unfamiliar cities. Thus, 3 out of 5 adults used electronic public services during 2022.

“During the war, we realized that electronic services were a priority… We have a lot to learn from the system of provision of administrative services that find points of contact with citizens, and judging by the quality of such services, we can understand how the state copes with the challenges,” says Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska.

Electronic services are administrative or other public services provided to citizens in electronic form. They are not only about convenience for both the authorities and residents, but also about reducing corruption risks through the de-bureaucratization of services and minimizing the number of people involved in their provision.

Providers of services can be both public authorities and local-self governments. At the same time, the majority of residents’ requests are most effectively solved locally, given the proximity to the applicants and providers. For example, electronic registration in kindergartens is not carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science, but by the local education department or directly by educational institutions because they are best aware of the number of places available for enrollment or the maximum number of children in groups.

So, how do Ukrainian cities use digital services, what electronic practices are used by foreign municipalities, and how do digital services help overcome the challenges of war? Let’s find out in more detail.

 

E-Tools in Ukrainian Cities: Wartime Experience

In 2022, the Transparent Cities team of Transparency International Ukraine studied the transparency of 70 rear cities in war conditions on the basis of criteria for organizing the work of city councils, publishing information on official resources, providing access to services and databases.

Among other things, we analyzed the city councils for the availability of electronic tools that allow applying for housing, ordering a place or service in city social assistance institutions, registering a child in an educational institution, as well as leaving a complaint about the work of urban land improvement or housing and municipal services.

We chose the following criteria because of the main challenges of wartime:

1. The psychological, physical, or material damage provoked by the war leads to an increase in the number of people in need of social assistance. In addition, there are categories of people who required this kind of service before the large-scale war.
2. Millions of displaced people have left their homes and are forced to look for new jobs, as well as educational institutions for children. Thus, education is among the dozens of problems that are of most concern to IDPs.
3. A significant part of the population requires housing, in particular temporary and social, from the balance sheets of municipalities. After a year of the full-scale war, russia damaged or destroyed more than 150,000 houses and completely destroyed 10 cities.
4. The shelling of Ukrainian cities destroys infrastructure and amenities, which affects the provision of municipal services to the population.

 

 

Of the 70 cities studied, only 12 provided the possibility to electronically register housing applications. City councils implemented this criterion in different ways: in half of the cities, more complex technological solutions were developed, other municipalities created special online forms or joined existing services. Thus, in Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, and Drohobych, an application for housing can be submitted through the resident’s account. Dubno and Bila Tserkva have created special online forms, while in Shostka, you can send documents and applications to an e-mail to become registered. Dnipro and Kamianske use the national IGOV resource.

About a quarter (19) of the studied cities have e-services or e-tools that relate to social services. This result is partly because the development of electronic tools for obtaining social services is not required by law and takes up significant resources. City councils provide electronic registration of applications for social services in various ways. Lviv has a separate website, Kyiv, Drohobych, and Uzhhorod provide an option on the electronic service portal, Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lutsk provide online forms, and Zviahel and Chornomorsk have a chatbot “Svoyi,” developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation in cooperation with the East Europe Foundation.

More effectively, cities provide residents with tools for filing complaints and appeals, as well as for electronic registration in municipal educational institutions. This is because during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure anti-epidemic measures and avoid crowds, city councils and their subordinate institutions developed tools for remote access to services. So, in wartime, the cities already had ready-made tools. In addition, to ensure the rights of citizens to online applications for enrollment in educational institutions or complaints about the work of housing and municipal services, national resources have been developed, such as the service “Open City” on the “E-Dem” platform and the system of electronic registration in the secondary and preschool education institutions.

Forty of the 70 city councils studied have a platform or tool for responding to complaints. A quarter of cities (10), such as Lutsk, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Brovary, and Chernihiv, have developed a special map of appeals, which allows not only leaving complaints, but also tracking their status, providers, territory of localization of problems, etc. 19 out of 40 municipalities developed their own forms of appeals (Kalush, Oleksandriia, Horishni Plavni) to promptly respond to residents’ requests. Another 8 city councils use the “Open City” service, and 3 use the “Svoyi” chatbot.

35 cities provide remote registration in schools or kindergartens, another 32 allow submitting an online application for enrollment either in a school or in preschool education institution. Despite the availability of national resources for registration in secondary and preschool education institutions, some cities use their own services. For example, Kolomyya, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil city councils have special websites. In Kalush, you can register a child in kindergarten by filling out an online form, and in Lubny — by sending documents to an e-mail address.

 

Why is it important for cities to implement such tools?

Electronic services are designed to form the infrastructure of electronic services, and help:

Optimize resources. Electronic solutions allow reducing the number of employees involved, the time for accepting applications, and the volume of manual (paper) work.

Feel safe and experience social cohesion. Online services are designed to help specific people who are in a vulnerable situation. In addition, the opportunity to be provided with services in a convenient way, especially for vulnerable categories of people, contributes to the inclusiveness of services because all social groups have access to the distribution of resources, regardless of their status or financial capabilities.

 

European Practices: What Can Ukrainian Cities Borrow?

Electronic services are unevenly and unequally developed in the EU. The situation is provoked by the diversity between member states and their political systems, insufficient funding and lack of quality standards. Despite this, the EU seeks to improve the current situation. Thus, within the framework of the Urban Agenda for the EU on Digital Transformation partnership, cities, EU countries, and the European Commission are working together to provide more efficient public services, support cities in using digital tools in the field of health and social security, e-governance, urban planning, etc. In addition, the field of electronic services is increasingly deregulated and assigned to regional and local authorities. Therefore, individual municipalities promote the widest possible access of the population to electronic services.

Barcelona City Council has developed a service to register children in preschool, primary, secondary, and special education institutions. Its significant advantage is that one separate site contains all the necessary information about all educational institutions of the city and the features of their educational process — the deadlines for submitting applications, the conditions for enrolling children and obtaining scholarships, document templates, features of learning for those who, due to illness, cannot attend educational institutions and even guides to educational institutions. In fact, a separate educational “ecosystem” was created at the city level.

A similar e-portal is planned to be launched in Ukraine. Thus, according to the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, registers of schoolchildren, teachers, and all schools are currently being formed, and an electronic opportunity is being developed to move from one institution to another. 

In total, the Barcelona City Council has provided an opportunity to receive about 450 services online. All of them are collected in the account of a resident on a special web resource of the city, which greatly facilitates access to services.

Vilnius residents can remotely be provided with almost 270 services related to tax policy, education, architecture and construction, health care, housing, advertising, environmental and agricultural spheres, and entrepreneurship. In Lithuania, unlike Ukraine, public and administrative services provided at the city level are gathered on a single resource. Therefore, to receive services, residents need to register either on the municipality’s website or on the government portal.  

For individual services in Vilnius, special sites were developed. For example, you can leave a complaint about urban land improvement and housing and municipal services on the map, which allows getting acquainted with the essence of the problem, the status of the application, and the responsible service providers. This tool is similar to those that Kyiv, Lutsk, Brovary, and Odesa have. In addition, residents of Vilnius can register requests for rent of social housing online.

In some countries, digital services are developed not only for citizens, but also for foreigners. Thus, in Germany, a special application was developed for immigrants from Ukraine, which helps open a bank account, apply for support in accordance with the Federal Training Assistance Act, or register with the Federal Employment Agency.

E-services are a component of e-governance, designed to ensure the convenience, speed, versatility, and transparency of the provision of services to the population. Such digital tools are becoming necessary right now, during the full-scale war, when the number of people in urgent need of social assistance, housing, or education is growing sharply. 

In addition, providing people with access to e-services is not always about complex technological solutions. Sometimes it is enough to create an online form or an e-mail address, and this will allow citizens to order services in a convenient way, and municipalities — to use available resources more efficiently and quickly respond to the local context.