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List of Ukrainian placenames affected by derussification
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Since Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991,[1] many populated places and administrative divisions in the country have had their names changed as part of the derussification of toponyms (placenames) in Ukraine.[a][5][6] These changes have involved the removal of placenames connected to people, places, events, and organizations associated with Russia and Russian imperialism[b] as well as the restoration of historical placenames that had been changed earlier in Ukraine's history by the Russian or Soviet government with the intention of removing local heritage.[9] Derussification has also included the respellings or rewordings of names to match standard spelling and word usages in the Ukrainian language.[c][20][21][2] The official names of populated places and raions (districts) in the country are determined through legislation passed by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament,[22] typically at the request of local authorities;[23][9] urban districts are named by each city's municipal council.[24] During the Soviet period, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, officials engaged in a significant renaming campaign to promote Bolshevism,[d] replacing thousands of historical placenames in the country of both Russian and Ukrainian origin with generic propaganda toponyms based on prominent communist symbols and figures.[34] In the 1980s, following the Soviet adoption of the liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika, Soviet Ukrainian and local governments carried out amongst the first[e] limited derussification as they gained greater autonomy,[34] returning some historical placenames and modifying others, notably with the renaming of the city and oblast of Rovno to Rivne on 11 June 1991 to bring it in line with Ukrainian language standards.[38] After independence, derussification efforts were sporadic,[34] with most name changes in the initial decades post-independence resulting from the restoration of pre-Soviet names through local efforts.[39][40][41][34] Following the months-long Euromaidan protests and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, hundreds of placenames dedicated to communist figures and the Soviet Union were changed as major decommunization legislation was enacted in 2016.[1][42] However, most Russian names not directly associated with communism or included in the decommunization legislation continued to stay in place as derussification remained less popular than decommunization.[7][43]
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, derussification gained widespread public support for the first time – even among Russian speakers and residents who had previously disapproved of decommunization[44][45] – and became part of the Ukrainian government's announced decolonization policies.[46][47] On 14 March 2023, multiple non-governmental organizations and other groups signed a petition calling for the adoption of derussification laws.[48][49][50] In response, the Ukrainian parliament passed on 21 March the law On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and the Decolonization of Toponymy, the country's first comprehensive derussification legislation, officially prohibiting placenames considered to promote Russian imperialism or the Russification of Ukraine.[21][8] An official list of placenames not conforming to the Ukrainian language was published on 30 June 2023 by the National Commission on State Language Standards,[51] followed on 3 August by a separate list from the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory of placenames associated with Russian imperialism.[35][52] Local authorities of affected places were given six months from the publication of each list to submit new name proposals to parliament;[f][52] localities that did not submit name proposals were renamed directly by parliament based on the Institute's or Commission's recommendations.[23][8] For certain localities that have placenames that are potentially applicable to renaming, such as the village of Krasnopil in Zhytomyr Oblast, whose name is derived from the color red (a symbol of the Soviet Union) but also dates as early as 1601, name changes are not required.[g][57]
As of 8 August 2025, multiple administrative divisions and hundreds of populated places have had their names changed or modified as part of derussification. Many of the name changes occurred on 26 September 2024 following the enactment of a major law formalizing new names for 327 populated places and four raions.[58][59] Amongst the most common names replaced as part of derussification are those named for the color red, Russian test pilot Valery Chkalov, Soviet Russian author Maxim Gorky, Russian botanist Ivan Michurin, Moscow and other Russian cities, the first of May (celebrated as International Workers' Day), and Russian imperial general Alexander Suvorov.[35][60] In addition, numerous placenames have had spelling and grammatical adjustments made to their legal names to match Ukrainian language standards, such as with over a dozen localities renamed from Yurivka (Ukrainian: Юр'ївка) to Yuriivka (Юріївка).[58][61] Of currently existing administrative divisions,[h] six raions and three urban districts have been affected by derussification post-independence,[58][64][65][66][67] with the raions being renamed in response to the name changes of their namesake administrative centers.[68][69] For populated places affected by derussification, most have been rural settlements and villages although 18 cities have also had name changes. Due to the ongoing Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine,[70] the new names for populated places and administrative divisions located in occupied areas have only de jure status while de facto Russian-appointed officials continue to use their pre-derussification names.[71]
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Administrative divisions
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Populated places
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See also
Notes
- Many other toponyms have also been affected by derussification,[2] including thousands of street names and the names of numerous geographic and other features.[3][4] These other renamings are excluded from this list.
- Due to legal limitations and narrow interpretations of decommunization legislation enacted in 2016 as well as resistance amongst some local authorities to renamings at the time, numerous placenames connected to communism and the Soviet Union continued to remain in place and were only later removed following the adoption of the comprehensive derussification law On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and the Decolonization of Toponymy in 2023.[7][8] These placenames associated with communism and removed by derussification legislation are included on this list.
- Under the Russian Empire, Russian was the sole official language in the country, while the Ukrainian language was suppressed. During the Soviet period, Ukrainian gained the status of a co-official language in the Ukrainian SSR. However, Russian was still generally preferred on the government level, and the standard Ukrainian orthography was heavily russified in 1933.[10][11] Continuous russification resulted in the spread of the Russian language in Ukraine (which remains the second most spoken language in the country),[12] as well as the formation of Surzhyk, a mixed vernacular language,[13] which is reflected in the spelling of numerous populated places that combine Russian and Ukrainian spelling and grammar.[2] Since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996, Ukrainian has been the country's sole national language while Russian is recognized as a minority language with constitutional guarantees for its "free development, use and protection" in Ukraine alongside the languages of the country's other national minorities.[14] In 1990, 1993, and 2019, the orthography underwent a partial reversal of russification.[15] The Romanization of Ukrainian has also become standardized in 1996,[16] and modified in 2010.[17] Its use for placenames gained prominence internationally after the KyivNotKiev campaign in 2018–2019, popularizing Ukrainian-based spellings such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv over their Russian-based equivalents of Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and Lvov.[18][19]
- The first Soviet renaming campaign of the 1920s and 1930s occurred during the interwar period after the defeat and occupation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1921 by the Red Army in the Ukrainian–Soviet War.[25][26][27] The next major renaming efforts occurred in the aftermath of World War II,[28] in which Soviet Ukraine was expanded to include annexed western regions formerly part of Czechoslovakia (Transcarpathia),[29] Poland (Eastern Galicia and Volhynia),[30] and Romania (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina),[31][32] as well as areas ceded by post-war Communist Poland in the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange.[33] The names imposed by Soviet officials during the renamings of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s involved the promotion of communist leaders and symbols in addition to Red Army generals and soldiers who had fought in the war.[34] These two renaming campaigns are the source for many of the names removed by derussification legislation.[35]
- There were earlier attempts at derussification during the Ukrainian People's Republic's brief existence when plans were created for the replacement of some names imposed during the Russian Empire but these changes were never implemented.[36][37]
- Although the legislation mandated the submission of new names by local communities within six months, an additional three month period was also given if new names were not adopted by the end of the original six months. If local authorities did not complete the renaming process by nine months, the ability to select a new name was ceded to the regional state administrations—the oblast governments. While the enactment of new names should have largely been completed by July 2024, the renaming process is still ongoing.[9][8] Cities that are expected to be renamed include Pavlohrad, Pervomaisk, and Synelnykove (due to their connections with Russia or the Soviet Union), as well as Bokovo-Khrustalne, Brovary, Derhachi, Khrustalnyi, and Sorokyne (due to their Russian-influenced spelling).[53][54][55] Although Crimea is covered by the derussification laws, the renaming process has not been initiated there as it is envisaged to include public hearings, which are impossible to organize due to the ongoing Russian occupation of Crimea.[56]
- Other exceptions to derussification provided by the laws include toponyms named after high ranking individuals in historical or modern-day Russia (except officials of Soviet security agencies) that protected or otherwise contributed to the identity, culture, rights, and/or independence of Ukraine (e.g. Andrei Sakharov);[2] toponyms named for Russian geographical, historical and cultural objects that are related to the culture or history of Ukrainians or the "enslaved peoples" of Russia; and names that are simply similar in appearance to other affected names (e.g. localities with the names Katerynivka or Mykolaivka are only included for renaming if confirmed by historical sources to be named after Russian Tsars).[35]
- On 18 July 2020, an administrative reform abolished and merged the country's 490 raions into 136 new, expanded raions while also creating 1469 new legal entities called hromadas and establishing them as the subdivisions of raions.[62][63] This list excludes raions that were abolished in 2020 as well as all hromadas that were affected by derussification.
- Ukrainian names link to the Ukrainian Wikipedia articles for each populated place or administrative division.
- Populated places in Ukraine are divided into three categories: cities, rural settlements, and villages. Urbanized localities as well as settlements of historical significance may be granted city status while rural settlements and villages are generally more rural; cities are typically the most populous followed by rural settlements and villages.[24]
- Populated places without an indicated namesake or specific reason for renaming are marked with a dash (—).
- Controlled by Russia following the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[70]
- Controlled by the pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic and Russia since 2014–2015 following the Donbas war.[70][76][77]
- Controlled by the pro-Russian Luhansk People's Republic and Russia since 2014 following the Donbas war.[70][76][77]
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