As the Crimean Tatar Resource Center reported on June 12, its human rights activists sent an appeal to Vice Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine Alexander Kubrakov and the head of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevgen Lyashchenko with a request to promote the renaming of railway stations in the Crimea.
The appeal states that there are a number of names of geographical objects on the territory of the Crimean peninsula that are subject to renaming in accordance with the law on the condemnation of the communist and national socialist totalitarian regimes, “in particular, railway stations: Krasnoperekopsk, Krasnopartizanska, Ostryakove, Krasnoflotska, Kirovska”.
Experts note that “there are still many names left in Crimea that have no historical basis and are the result of Russification and Sovietization of the peninsula”, and that “the return of historically based toponyms to the map of Crimea must be prepared before the Ukrainian flag will again fly over the Crimean peninsula so that after the de-occupation not to waste time on this”.
In total, the appeal proposes to rename the names of 94 railway stations, points and platforms, an analysis of the proposals shows that the renaming will mainly reflect the historical names of areas, settlements and objects adjacent to the station.
In some cases, proposals talk about perpetuating the memory of representatives of the indigenous population of Crimea who were related to railway transport, as well as veterans of the Crimean Tatar movement and victims of invaders’ repression.
