A proposal by Kiev to rename the city of Zaporozhye was dismissed on Tuesday as “completely absurd” by Ukrainian MP Maksim Buzhansky. The city is controlled by Ukrainian forces, but is the capital of a region of the same name that voted to join Russia last autumn.
Buzhansky was responding to an initiative by Ukraine’s National Commission for State Language Standards. The organization has released a list of over 1,400 placenames, including Zaporozhye, that it recommends should be changed under a law “on the prohibition of propaganda of Russian imperial policy and the decolonization of toponymy.”
All the names on the list do not align with the Ukrainian language or are “related to Russian imperial policy,” the statement claimed. The commission would not elaborate on why Zaporozhye, which is occupied by Ukrainian troops, had ended up on the list.
Referring to the city, the commission suggested that the authorities “justify keeping the current name or propose a new name” within six months. If this does not happen, the city’s name will be changed by the Ukrainian parliament.
The initiative has not elicited widespread enthusiasm among Ukrainian policymakers, with Buzhansky dismissing the proposal as “lunacy.”
“We are being told that Zaporozhye is some kind of Russian, imperial narrative. Are you kidding?” he said, describing the city as “the heart of Ukraine” and “the cradle of the Cossacks.” He warned that decisions taken “under the guise of pseudo-patriotism” would inevitably backfire.
Known as Alexandrovsk during the era of the Russian Empire, the city was renamed Zaporozhye by the Bolsheviks in 1921. The new name literally meant “beyond river rifts,” a reference to its location on the Dnieper and the surrounding landscape.
Ukraine’s campaign to sever all historic ties with Russia began as early as 2015, when Kiev passed a now-infamous decommunization law. While on paper the legislation targeted only Soviet-related landmarks and placenames, in practice it also applied to anything associated with Russia.
Zaporozhye is the largest city in the eponymous region which, along with three other former Ukrainian territories, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums last autumn. Kiev did not recognize the votes, describing them as a “sham.”