M. Y. TAKHTAULOVA,
The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute"
Post-graduate from the Department of Political History
THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES ON KHARKIV
TOPONYMY IN 80-90S IN THE XX ENTURY
In nowadays the conditions of democratization of society in Ukraine is the
decisive renovation method of public life. The democracy acts as the way of
opposition, improvement and social harmonization of realization. It is the most
effective method of radical transformation of the political system and of the whole
society. It is the guarantee of irreversibility of this process. The practice of postSoviet transformation processes shows that there exists specific historical period from
the proclamation of democratic importance to its realization. None of the post-Soviet
countries made a step into democracy at once, since necessary premises for
democracy were absent (economic, socio-political and socio-cultural ones).
Under the influence of democratic transformations of the end of 80- 90s a
number of important changes took place in politics, economics, culture, science and
in other spheres of public life. However, not all transformation processes were
reflected positively on public democratization. It was necessary to solve out the task
of the establishment of the nation state and political nation. The former Soviet elite
preserved commanding attitudes. It possessed low level of professionalism and moral
qualities. The elite was not ready to resolve complicated tasks in different areas of
public life. This led to worsening the economic and social situation of the most of
citizens.
In spite of difficulties mentioned, the democratic processes have continued in
public life. They have influenced a lot not only politic and economical, but also
national cultural space of the countries. The place-name study has also acted on this
changes. Bolsheviks used the names of streets and squares as the propaganda means.
Democrats who came to the power started to clear urban toponymical space from the
Soviet heritage. Following Kharkiv example we will briefly examine the specifics of
renaming urban urbanonims.
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The nominal space of Kharkiv city, like other cities of the European part of
USSR, changed under the influence of democratic ideas in the end of 80s in the XX
century. It changed with the typical reasons of historical truth renewal, the filling of
the blank spots of the past and the disclosure of the communist crimes for that time.
The name F. Dzerzhynsky was crossed off the city map. In the beginning to the street
it was returned its historical name – Mironositskaya, then the underground station –
Universitet was renamed. It appeared more difficult with the main city square. Its
historical name – Veterinarnaya square, was ignored. It was decided to select a new
name, in the spirit of the age. As the result, the square got two names - Freedom and
Independence. In 1993 the first name was fixed. However, the memory of the founder
of Soviet special services was kept for the name of Kharkiv centre district. In honor
of the adoption of a new main law in 1996, the square of Soviet Ukraine was renamed
into the square of Constitution.
The regional component considerably influenced the urban toponymy
alteration. So, the embankment which carried the name of famous Stalin's ideologist
U. Zhdanov obtained the name - Kharkovskaya. The street of the 8 th Congress of
Soviets was named in honor of Kharkiv’s poet – B. Chichibabin, who had the
reputation of being a dissident. It may seem strange, but the fate of Soviet symbols of
Bolshevist propaganda was shared by the Russian revolutionary democrat A. Gertsen.
The street named after him started to carry the name of the spaceman from Kharkiv
V. Bondarenko, who was killed during the tests.
The transformation of toponymical urban space has been continuing up to the
present. Thus, Kharkiv toponymical committee held on 29 of March in 2011 made a
decision to rename the public garden “Pionerskiy” (Kultura street, 23) into the public
garden of international soldiers, and the square on the Novy Byt and Dobrodetskiy
street intersection – to rename in honor of the Hero of the Soviet Union A.
Dobrodetskiy.
So, under the influence of democratic ideas the modernization of Kharkiv
toponymic space goes on. Toponyms continue to reflect ethnic and religious changes,
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alterations with the state ideology and public awareness, creating new toponymic
map of Kharkiv.
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: http://streets-kharkiv.info/toponimika-nauka-ne-dlya-ryadovogogorozhanina
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