Vol. 73 No. 2 (2025): Names: A Journal of Onomastics
Articles

“Iron Ukrainization”: The Historical and Political Dimensions of Naming the Railways in Ukraine

PDF
  • Oleksiy Gnatiuk
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2025.2663

Published 2025-06-16

Keywords

  • railway,
  • place name,
  • hodonym,
  • geopolitics,
  • critical toponomastics,
  • Ukraine
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2025 Oleksiy Gnatiuk

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article examines the historical names of railways in Ukraine by employing cultural-geographic and critical approaches. More specifically, this research describes semantic categories of railway names in Ukraine and highlights how railway names are explicitly or implicitly used as political instruments and forms of discursive power. The empirical part of the research is based on a database of the names of the railways in Ukraine throughout the history of the national railway network. The data was collected using modern reviews and directories, media screening, as well as archive sources. Throughout history most of the names of Ukrainian railways were not commemorative and performed primarily orientation function. Still, most of the names had potential political implications. Focusing on certain cases of politically-driven renaming of railways in Ukraine, including the ongoing project of “Iron Ukrainization”, this research demonstrates how place names related to transport networks may function as geospatial projections of hegemonic political power, by legitimizing specific centers of political power in the linguistic landscape of a country.

PDF

References

  1. Ainiala, Terhi, Minna Saarelma, and Paula Sjöblom. 2016. Names in Focus. An Introduction to Finnish Onomastics. Helsinki: SKS.
  2. Afonina, Galina. 1996. Краткие сведения о развитии отечественных железных дорог [Brief Information on the Development of Domestic Railways]. Moscow: Central Scientific and Technical Library of Railway Transport of Russia.
  3. Bergmann, Hubert. 2009. “Geographical Names and the Railway Industry”. United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, 25th Session, 1–10. Nairobi. Accessed July 25, 2024. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn/docs/25th-gegn-docs/wp papers/wp13-railwaynames-austria.pdf
  4. Boychuk, Yuliana, Rory Dumelier, Yevheniya Fau, Khrystyna Mysiv, Anastasiia Sereda, Alison Toews, and Courage White. 2023. “The Effect of Russian Colonialism on Ukrainian Cultural Identity”. Crossing Borders 5, no. 2: 1–15.
  5. Centre for Aviation. 2015. “What’s in an Eponym? Celebrity Airports – Could There be a Commercial Benefit in Naming?” Accessed July 27, 2024. https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/whats-in-an-eponym-could-there-be-a-financial-or-other-benefit-in-celebrity-airport-naming-215965
  6. Coates, Richard. 2016. “Railway Locomotive Names and Place Names”. The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming, edited by Carole Hough, 645–654. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. Coates, Richard. 2023. “The Naming of Railway Locomotives in Britain as a Cultural Indicator, 1846–1954”. Onomastics in Interaction with Other Branches of Science. Volume 3. General and Applied Onomastics. Literary Onomastics. Chrematonomastics. Reports, edited by Urszula Bijak, Paweł Swoboda, Justyna B. Walkowiak, 434¬–447. Krakow: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
  8. Craghead, Alexander Benjamin. 2023. “What’s In a Name?” Railfan & Railroad 42, no. 12. Accessed July 25, 2024. https://railfan.com/whats-in-a-name/
  9. Davydenko, Andrii, and Halyna Naienko. 2018. “Linguistic Russification in Russian Ukraine: Languages, Imperial Models, and Policies”. Russian Linguistics 43: 19–39.
  10. Destrem, Lucas. 2017. “Les noms du tram. Quand les dénominations des stations disent le projet de ville”. Annales de Géographie 713, no. 1: 5–30.
  11. Destrem, Lucas. 2022. “For a Critical Study of the Toponomy of Places of Mobility”. The Politics of Place Naming: Naming the World, edited by Frédéric Giraut and Myriam Houssay-Holzchuch, 149–174. Hoboken: Wiley.
  12. DIIA. 2023a. “Залізна українізація триває: у Дії вибрали назву для Південно-Західної залізниці. Долучайтеся до нового опитування — визначте назву для Південної залізниці” [Iron Ukrainization Continues: The Name for the South-Western Railway Was Chosen in Diia. Take Part in a New Survey – Decide on a Name for the Southern Railway]. Accessed July 25, 2024. https://diia.gov.ua/news/zalizna-ukrayinizaciya-trivaye-u-diyi-vibrali-nazvu-dlya-pivdenno-zahidnoyi-zaliznici-doluchajtesya-do-novogo-opituvannya-viznachte-nazvu-dlya-pivdennoyi-zaliznici
  13. DIIA. 2023b. “Залізна українізація в Дії: українці обрали нову назву для Південної залізниці” [Iron Ukrainization in Diia: Ukrainians Chose a New Name for the Southern Railway]. Accessed July 25, 2024. https://diia.gov.ua/news/zalizna-ukrayinizaciya-v-diyi-ukrayinci-obrali-novu-nazvu-dlya-pivdennoyi-zaliznici
  14. Fomenko, Olena. 2018. “The Metro and the City: The Linguistic Landscape of Kyiv Underground and Remaking National Identity”. International Scientific Conference Onomastic Investigations, 40–41. Riga: University of Latvia.
  15. Fraszczyk, Anna, Waressara Weerawat, and Phumin Kirawanich. 2020. “Metro Station Naming Strategies in Selected Megacities and Lessons for New Metro Systems”. Transportation Research Procedia 48, no. 2: 2608-2620.
  16. Giraut, Frédéric, and Myriam Houssay-Holzchuch. 2016. “Place Naming as Dispositif: Toward a Theoretical Framework”. Geopolitics 21, no. 1: 1-21.
  17. Gnatiuk, Oleksiy, Olena Kononenko, and Kostyantyn Mezentsev. 2022. “Kyiv Metro and Urban Imageability: A Student Youth Vision”. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Geographia 57, no. 1: 255-268.
  18. Gnatiuk, Oleksiy, and Anatoliy Melnychuk. 2023. “A Case Study of De-Russification of Ukrainian Hodonyms: Rigged Trial or Justice Restored”. Names 71, no. 4: 40-55.
  19. Halpern, Nigel, and Uttam Kumar Regmi. 2011. “What’s in a Name? Analysis of Airport Brand Names and Slogans”. Journal of Airport Management 6, no, 1: 63-79.
  20. Hough, Carole, ed., 2016. The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  21. International Council of Onomastic Sciences. 2019. “A List of Key Onomastic Terms”. Accessed January 22, 2025. https://icosweb.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ICOS-Terms-en.pdf
  22. Kapur, Anu. 2019. Mapping Place Names of India. New York: Routledge.
  23. Kindrachuk, Nadia. 2016. “Національне поневолення українців в умовах русифікації мовно-культурного простору УРСР: 60-70-ті роки ХХ ст”. [Ukrainian National Oppression During the Russification of Language and Cultural Space of the USSR: The 60s–70s of the XX Century] Skhid 142, no. 2: 48–53.
  24. Kuczabski, Alexander, and Alina Boychuk. 2020. “Decommunization of Urban Toponymy in Ukraine: Causes and Consequences”. Journal of Geography, Politics and Society 10, no. 4: 8-16.
  25. Kuzio, Taras. 2019. “Russian Stereotypes and Myths of Ukraine and Ukrainians and Why Novorossiya Failed”. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 52, no. 4: 297-309.
  26. Lehtonen, Johanna, Mallat, Kaija, and Sami Suviranta. 2016. “Naming Metro Stations in Helsinki and Espoo”. Names and Their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, volume 2, edited by Carole Hough and Daria Izdebska, 16–21. Glasgow: University of Glasgow.
  27. Library Portal of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. “Revival: Daily Non-Partisan Democratic Newspaper”. https://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/dlib/item/0001125
  28. Light, Duncan, and Craig Young. 2015. “Toponymy as Commodity: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Urban Place Names”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 39 , no. 3: 435-450.
  29. Look, Gary, and Howard Shrobe. 2007. “Towards Intelligent Mapping Applications: A Study of Elements Found in Cognitive Maps”. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, edited by David Chine and Michelle Zhou, 309–312. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
  30. Lynch, Kevin. 1960. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  31. Marek, Petr. 2020. “Region as a Social Construct and the Critical Discussion of the Paasi’s Conceptualization of Regional Identity”. Geografie 125, no. 1: 47-68.
  32. Merrill, Samuel. 2014. Excavating Buried Memories: Mnemonic Production in the Railways Under London and Berlin, 1933–2013. PhD Thesis. London: University College London.
  33. Merrill, Samuel. 2015. “Identities in Transit: The (Re)connections and (Re)brandings of Berlin’s Municipal Railway Infrastructure After 1989”. Journal of Historical Geography 50: 76–91.
  34. Musset, Alain. 2010. “Le Plan du Métro de Mexico: Points, Lignes et Territoires” [Mexico City Metro Map : Points, Lines, and Territories]. Le Monde des Cartes, 204: 77–84.
  35. Nahornyi, Tymofii. 2023. “Toponymic Decolonizing in City of Kyiv: A Spatial Wayfinding Approach”. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Geography 86/87, no. 1/2: 65–72.
  36. Neuner, Bernhard. 2002. Bibliographie der Österreichischen Eisenbahnen von den Anfängen bis 1918. Band 2. [Bibliography of the Austrian Railways From the Beginnings to 1918. Volume 2.] Wien: Walter Drews Verlag.
  37. Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco, and Francesco Cavallaro. 2023. Place Names: Approaches and Perspectives in Toponymy and Toponomastics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  38. Room, Adrian. 1996. An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.
  39. Rose-Redwood, Reuben, Derek Alderman, and Maoz Azaryahu. 2010. “Geographies of Toponymic Inscription: New Directions in Critical Place-Name Studies”. Progress in Human Geography, 34, no. 4: 453–470.
  40. Rose-Redwood, Reuben, and Derek Alderman. 2015. “Critical Interventions in Political Toponymy”. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 10, no. 1: 1–6.
  41. Rose-Redwood, Reuben, Baird, Ian G., Palonen, Emilia, and CindyAnn Rose-Redwood. 2022. “Monumentality, Memoryscapes, and the Politics of Place”. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 21, no. 5: 448–467.
  42. Rose-Redwood, Reuben, Derek Alderman, and Maoz Azaryahu. 2017. “The Urban Streetscape as Political Cosmos”. The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place, edited by Reuben Rose-Redwood, Derek Alderman and Maoz Azaryahu, 1–24. Abingdon: Routledge.
  43. Rose-Redwood, Reuben, Jani Vuolteenaho, Craig Young, and Duncan Light. 2019. “Naming Rights, Place Branding, and the Tumultuous Cultural Landscapes of Neoliberal Urbanism”. Urban Geography 40, no. 6: 747–761.
  44. Tomasik, Piotr. 2018. “Informative Function in the Names of Urban Transport Routes”. International Scientific Conference Onomastic Investigations, 120. Riga: University of Latvia.
  45. Ukrzaliznytsia. 2023. “Дві регіональні філії Укрзалізниці позбудуться застарілих назв у рамках програми «Залізна українізація»”. [Two Regional Branches of Ukrzaliznytsia Will Get Rid of Outdated Names as Part of the “Iron Ukrainization” Program] Accessed July 25, 2024. https://www.uz.gov.ua/press_center/up_to_date_topic/595676/
  46. Vuolteenaho, Jani, and Laurence D. Berg. 2009. “Towards Critical Toponymies”. Critical Toponymies: The Contested Politics of Place Naming, edited by Laurence D. Berg and Jani Vuolteenaho, 1–18. Farnham: Ashgate.
  47. Vuolteenaho, Jani. 2022. “Toponymic Commodification: Thematic Brandscapes, Spatial Naming Rights, and the Property-Name Nexus”. The Politics of Place Naming: Naming the World, edited by Frédéric Giraut and Myriam Houssay-Holzchuch, 109–134. Hoboken: Wiley..
  48. Woznicki, Krystian. 2003. “Saddam International Airport/Baghdad International Airport: The Airport as a Symbol and Elementary Unit of (Neo)-imperial World Land Development”. Springerin 2. Accessed July 25, 2024. https://www.springerin.at/en/2003/2/saddam-international-airportbagdad-international-airport/

Most read articles by the same author(s)