Offensive name – Kommersant Yaroslavl

Deputies from the New People party submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation a draft law on a simplified procedure for renaming settlements with “offensive and derogatory” names. The explanatory note mentions the Yaroslavl villages of Shalava and Bukhalovo. Yaroslavl residents do not agree that dissonant names need to be changed. The expert warns that this way you can lose historical toponyms, and new ones often do not carry any content.

Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vladislav Davankov and Anton Tkachev from the New People party introduced a draft law simplifying the renaming of settlements with dissonant names.

“Currently in the Russian Federation there are hundreds of settlements whose names are offensive, derogatory or degrading to the inhabitants,” says the explanatory note to the bill.

In the explanatory note, the authors of the initiative mention two settlements in the Yaroslavl region – Shalava and Bukhalovo, as well as the village of Lokh in the Ivanovo region, the village of Pukovo in the Tver region, the village of Musorka in the Samara region, and the village of Popki in the Pskov region. Secretary of the council of the regional branch of the party, State Duma deputy Anna Skroznikova believes that residents of such villages may be subject to persecution.

“There is some bullying among children in schools. The child is asked, where are you from? And here are the names that are non-standard for our country; they cause many conflicting opinions among both children and adults. In the passport, we also write down in which locality the child was born,” Anna Skroznikova told Kommersant-Yaroslavl.

As stated in the explanatory note, “residents of these settlements prefer to leave their place of residence or continue to experience discomfort.” Meanwhile, renaming settlements is difficult, since “it presupposes the need for approval of such a decision by the legislative body of state power of the subject of the Russian Federation.” “New People” propose to vest such powers in representative bodies of local self-government, that is, local councils.

“I think it makes sense to leave this to the municipalities. If there is a demand among residents to rename the locality, why not do it. This will all come from the residents. If they want, you can rename it, and if everything suits them, then, of course, there is no need to rename it,” says Anna Skroznikova.

According to the historian, head of the Department of Regional Studies and Tourism at YarSU named after. P.G. Demidov Andrey Danilov, the initiative of “New People” is not new at all. “In the late 60s, at the level of the republics of the Soviet Union, they carried out a campaign to clean up dissonant names. In the Yaroslavl region, several dozen names were then renamed: Kalovo became Zarnitsyno, Grabezhovo became Rassvetnoye,” he told Kommersant-Yaroslavl.

The scientist who studies Yaroslavl toponyms is skeptical about the next round of renamings. According to him, names that are dissonant for modern people can preserve historical memory.

“We have two settlements with the name Bukhalovo, and the emphasis is on the first syllable. “Bukhalo” is an eagle owl in Yaroslavl dialects. It turns out that we are removing part of the history of the language, part of our dialect.

Any name encrypts historical aspects. Gary, Gorelovo talk about slash-and-burn agriculture, this is a whole layer of our agricultural culture. Bragino talks about making mash, and what’s wrong with that? They renamed Serkovo, for example, but few people know that in Meryan “sero” meant “coast”. That is, we have removed the opportunity to trace the history of a settlement back to pre-Slavic times,” says Andrei Danilov.

Residents of Bukhalov in the Danilovsky district do not suffer from the name of their village, deputy of the Danilovsky rural settlement, journalist Lidia Alabysheva told Kommersant-Yaroslavl.

“I have never heard from the residents of Bukhalov that they live in a settlement whose name is inconvenient or not liked. Because of the name, no one leaves there. Someone died, someone left because there was no work. But this has nothing to do with the name. On the contrary, people come, there is a whole street of summer residents. Such initiatives, in my opinion, resemble pouring from empty to empty,” said Lidiya Alabysheva.

The author of the telegram channel “Bespontovyi pie,” journalist Alexander Tikhonov, sees more advantages than disadvantages in “dissonant” names. Mr. Tikhonov posted his own photos in the channel under the road signs “Lokh” and “Bukhalovo”.

“From a tourism point of view it works well. At a minimum, people driving by regularly take pictures with the signs, and people have actually been drawn to the Loch in recent years. It’s in vain that “New People” are trying to hype,” writes Alexander Tikhonov.

Historian Andrei Danilov believes that the adoption of a law on a simplified change of dissonant names is unlikely.

“If the village population really takes the name with hostility, the initiative must be conveyed to the regional authorities. Renaming at the local government level is inappropriate. This is a geographical nomenclature, its list is fixed by the state. Local authorities cannot change it. This is not the name of a cafe or street,” sums up Andrey Danilov.

The expert draws attention to the fact that new toponyms in Russia are often of a “sweet and meaningless” nature. So, many streets are called Snezhnaya, Rassvetnaya, Sosnovaya and so on. Mr. Danilov believes that renaming should only take place with the involvement of experts in history and toponymy, who often simply do not exist at the local level.

Anton Golitsyn