Changes of the Moscow hodonym system as a way of interpreting social reality

The paper analyzes the ways of interpreting social reality and producing symbolic resources in Moscow by changing the system of streetnames (hodonyms) which are the most widespread and used class of urban toponyms. Hodonyms are considered as an important and the most dynamic element of the political landscape of a city. The study is based on geoinformation analysis of the database created by selecting streetnames with political connotations from the Moscow hodonyms of the portal “Electronic Moscow”. These are associated with: 1) the communist regime and its realities; 2) cultural and art persons; 3) economic-geographical objects; 4) physical-geographical objects. Spatial patterns of naming Moscow streets were studied. The use of key technologies of (re)naming streets in the capital is analyzed, including “cleansing”, re-establishment, restitution and promotion. The first wave of renaming after the 1917 revolution led to a significant change in the political and cultural landscape of the city by changing more than 65% of the names, primarily those associated with royal dynasties, noble and merchant families, monasteries and churches. The second wave, i. e. the post-Soviet restitution, affected only about 5% of streets, mainly located in the center. Therefore, the modern system of Moscow street names is to a high degree inherited from the Soviet era and the naming principles adopted then. More than 30% of hodonyms are still directly related to the communist regime and its realities. According to the structure of streetnames, Moscow appears first of all as a center of historical Russia, the former Moscow principality, and then the province and region. The capital preserves the tradition of clustering hodonyms, laid down in pre-revolutionary times. There are clusters associated with places of violent clashes during revolutionary periods, clusters associated with regions of the country located towards the corresponding corners of the earth, and clusters associated with the location of organizations associated with international activities, foreign states and their representatives. The mirror of hodonyms reflects the image of Moscow as a capital of Russia, collecting the surrounding territories, a former center of the great empire and macroregion of the world, as well as a large multifunctional agglomeration and a world city. 

1. Aksenov K.E. Simvolicheskij geopoliticheskij kapital i gorodskoe prostranstvo [Symbolic geopolitical capital and urban space], Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya, 2024, no. 1, p. 67–88. (In Russian)

2. Averyanov К.A. Istorija Moskovskih rajonov [History of Moscow districts], Moscow, Astrel, AST Publ., 2005, 830 p. (In Russian)

3. Azaryahu M. The Power of Commemorative Street Names, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 1996, no. 14, p. 311–330.

4. Basik S.N. Critical toponymy as a direction of geographical research: problems and prospects [Kriticheskaya toponimika kak napravlenie geograficheskix issledovanij: problemy’ i perspektivy’], Geogr. vestn., 2018, no. 1, p. 56– 63. (In Russian)

5. Buchstaller I., Fabiszak M. Editorial: ideology and commemoration in the urban space. Linguistics Vanguard, 2001, no. 7, p. 1–10.

6. Cosgrove D.E. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1998, 332 p.

7. Debarbieux B. L’espace de l’imaginaire. Essais et détours, Paris, Edition du CNRS, 2021.

8. Efremov Yu.K. Moskovskih ulic imena [Names of Moscow streets], Moscow, Veche Publ., 1997, 512 p. (In Russian)

9. Gerasimenko T.I., Iskaliyev D.Zh. Processy’ transformacii astionimov na geograficheskoj karte Kazaxstana (konecz XIX – nachalo XXI veka) [Transformation processes of the astyonyms on the geographical map of Kazakhstan (late XIX – early XXI centuries)], Nauka. Innov. Tekhnol, 2021, no. 3, p. 23–42. (In Russian)

10. Gerasimenko T.I., Kalutskov V.N., Kolomeitsev O.V., et al. Toponimiya Blizhnego Zarubezh’ya: 100 let pereimenovanij. Atlas-spravochnik [Toponymy of the Near Abroad: 100 Years of Renaming. Atlas-reference], Moscow, 2020, 255 p. (In Russian)

11. Giraut F., Houssay-Holzschuch M. Place Naming as Dispositif: Toward a Theoretical Framework, Geopolitics, 2016, DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2015.1134493.

12. Kalutskov V. Konceptualizaciya geograficheskogo prostranstva: onomasticheskie aspekty [Conceptualization of Geographical Space: Onomastic Aspects], Vestn. Mosk. Univ., Ser. 19, Lingvist. Mezhkult. Kommun, 2020, no. 1, p. 57–69. (In Russian)

13. Kalutskov V.N. Landshaft v kul’turnoj geografii [Landscape in cultural geography], Moscow, Novyi Khronograf Publ., 2008, 320 p. (In Russian)

14. Kliot N., Mansfeld Y. The political landscape of partition. The case of Cyprus, Political Geography, 1997, no. 16(6), p. 495–521.

15. Kolosov V.A., Zotova M.V. Evolution of the political landscape of Moscow as capital, Regional Research of Russia, 2023, no. 5(13), p. S40–S54.

16. Kudriavtseva N. Reconfiguring identities within the cityscape: ideologies of decommunization renaming in Ukraine, Ideology and politics, 2020, no. 1(15), p. 2–21.

17. Light D. Street names in Bucharest, 1990–1997: Exploring the modern historical geographies of post-socialist change, Journal of Historical Geography, 2004, no. 30(1), p. 154–72

18. Manakov A.G. [Toponymic landscape of the Russian-Estonian and Russian-Latvian borderlands], Kul’turny’j landshaft Pogranich’ya: proshloe, nastoyashhee, budushhee, [Cultural landscape of the Borderland: past, present, future], 2018, vol. 2, p. 56–64. (In Russian)

19. Mitin I. Toponimicheskij palimpsest: pereimenovaniya kak simvolicheskoe (pere)konstruirovanie prostranstva i mesta [The toponymical palimpsest: renaming as a symbolic (re)construction of space and place], Pskov. Regionolog. Zh., 2021, vol. 17, no. 4, p. 73–83. (In Russian)

20. Palonen E. Building a New City through a New Discourse: Street Naming Revolutions in Budapest, The Political Life of Urban Streetscape: Naming, Politics, and Place, R. Rose-Redwood, D. Alderman, M. Azaryahu (еds.), Routledge, Abingdon, 2017, p. 98–113.

21. Pospelov E.M. Geograficheskie nazvanija v Moskve [Geographical names in Moscow], Voprosy geografii, no. 126, 1985, p. 126–137. (In Russian)

22. Romanova A. Political Dynamics of Urban Hodonyms: A Case of Chisinau, Moldova, Urbana, 2021, no. 22, p. 132–143.

23. Różycki B. Renaming urban toponomy as a mean of redefining local identity: the case of street decommunization in Poland, Open Political Science, 2018, no. 1, p. 20–31.

24. Rusu M.S. Street naming practices: A systematic review of urban toponymic scholarship, Onoma, 2021, no. 56, p. 269–292.

25. Saushkin Yu.G., Glushkova V.G. Moskva sredi gorodov mira [Moscow among the cities of the world], Moscow, Mysl’ Publ., 1983, 285 p. (In Russian)

26. Smolitskaya G.P., Gorbanevsky M.V. Toponimija Moskvy [Toponymy of Moscow], Moscow, Nauka, 1982, 176 p. (In Russian)

27. Sokolova T.P. Obzor literatury o toponimii Moskvy [Review of literature on toponymy of Moscow], Voprosy geografii, 1985, no. 129, p. 179–186. (In Russian)

28. Vendina O., Gritsenko A. Ot narrativov k monumentam: simvolicheskaya transformaciya kul’turnogo landshafta Kaliningradskoj oblasti [From Narratives to Monuments: Symbolic Transformation of the Cultural Landscape of the Kaliningrad Region], Zh. Front. Issled., 2024, vol. 9, p. 134–171. (In Russian)

29. Vendina O., Karpenko M. Toponimicheskij landshaft Kazaxstanskogo pogranich’ya s Rossiej: kul’turnaya suverenizaciya i politika pereimenovanij [Toponymic Landscape of the Kazakhstan-Russia Borderland: Cultural Sovereignty and Renaming Policies], Zh. Front. Issled., 2023, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 277–305. (In Russian)

30. Vuolteenaho J., Berg L.D. Towards critical toponymies, Critical toponymies. The contested politics of place naming, L.D. Berg, J. Vuolteenaho (еds.), Farnham, Burlington, Ashgate, 2009, p. 1–18.

31. Young C., Kaczmarek S. The Socialist Past and Postsocialist Urban Identity in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of Lódź, Poland, European Urban and Regional Studies, 2008, no. 15(1), p. 53–70.

32. Web resources

33. The door to the year 1917. Why renaming Voykovskaya became a national problem, URL: https://lenta.ru/columns/2015/11/12/mavzol/ (access date 15.12.2024).

34. Electronic Moscow, URL: http://mosopen.ru/streets (access date 13.08.2024).

35. Open data portal. Government of Moscow, URL: https:// data.mos.ru (access date 17.07.2024).