@article{Karoyeva_2017, title={ABSTRACT OF PRACTICAL ACTIVITY OF A WORKGROUP ON «DECOMMUNIZATION» OF PUBLIC AREA OF THE TOWN OF VINNYTSIA: HISTORIAN’S VIEW}, url={http://mics.org.ua/journal/index.php/mics/article/view/32}, DOI={10.15407/mics2017.02.196}, abstractNote={<p>The article deals with practical activity of the workgroup created in order to<br>administer the Law of Ukraine «On condemnation of totalitarian regimes in<br>Ukraine and prohibition of propaganda of their insignia» within the town of<br>Vinnytsia. The workgroup had to reveal objects containing communist and<br>Soviet insignia that exists in the public urban area, to work out advice and<br>propositions as to replacing town toponyms containing insignia of communist<br>the totalitarian regime with new names.<br>The article content is arranged in the following blocks: a) creation of the<br>workgroup; b) decision-making algorithm (from historians’ point of view);<br>c) scientific grounds of historian group activity; d) selection of objects for<br>further discussion; e) procedure of discussion of proposed new toponyms.<br>Six historians residing in Vinnytsia were introduced into the workgroup.<br>They belong to various generations and represent both governmental and<br>public organizations. The following principles have been defined for organizing<br>of the historian group activity:</p> <p>- toleration (provides for respectful attitude towards various canons of<br>historic memory except for Soviet-communist one);<br>- historicism (due regard to be paid not only to the past but to current<br>tendencies and challenges of the future as well);<br>- education (the activity has to promote dialogs between various social<br>groups and formation of unified collective memory);<br>- local topicality with a view to the formation of unified image/brand of the<br>town.<br>Several approaches to practical activity on replacing of toponyms have<br>been developed in order to ensure smooth work process. They were intended<br>to be used simultaneously or in sequence depending on the actual situation but<br>every proposal was concerned from the proposed standpoints in line with all<br>the following approaches:<br>- historicity (provides for restoration of historical names of places and<br>implementation of historical and urban practical methods of representation<br>of the town history in toponymy);<br>- commemoration (this approach traditionally provides for drawing attention<br>to the formation of ethnic and national identity and cultural matrix<br>of the nation, but in the course of solving of nation-wide problems Vinnytsia<br>historian group strived to be oriented to the identity of local urban<br>community);<br>- locality (conformity of toponyms to peculiarities of nature, history,<br>economics and culture of Vinnytsia, Bratslavshchyna, and Podillia regions);<br>- concreteness (provides for conformity of a toponym to its actual local<br>(in line with toponym’s scale) circumstances (geographical, biological,<br>industrial, cultural, religious, personological etc.);<br>- actualization (due regard to be paid to the necessity of drawing attention<br>to certain events and persons that, as a rule, are not of the nationwide<br>scale).<br>Out of total 836 town place names, 147 toponyms (85 names) have been<br>replaced with new ones and reasoning for 5 names (12 toponyms) has been<br>changed. Thus decommunization encompassed 19% of the town toponymical<br>system.</p>}, number={2}, journal={City: History, Culture, Society}, author={Karoyeva, Tatiana}, year={2017}, month={Oct.}, pages={196–206} }