Ideological Battle on the Front of Names

One of the key priorities of the new Ukrainian political leadership emerging in the political crisis persisting since the end of 2013 has been the eradication of the Soviet past. This intention was addressed by the “decommunization package” consisting of four laws, adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on 9 April 2015 and signed by the president on 15 May. This study describes one of the laws forming part of the package, entitled “Law on the Condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist Totalitarian Regimes and on the Prohibition of Their Symbols”. Further, it analyses the name reform provided for by the law and engineered by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, in the result of which 987 cities, large municipalities and villages, 25 districts, and several ten thousand public domains (roads, streets, squares) got new names during one single year, in the spirit of the remembrance policy taking new direction in Ukraine