Mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko stated that he had been repeatedly asked to inquire into the matter by the city’s residents, both as mayor and during his earlier stint as councilor. The mayor proposes to replace the communist leader’s nickname with a simple neutral alternative, the City Park. Meanwhile, Mykolaienko is asking the public and journalists to join the discussion in the earnest and offer their suggestions. The survey now offered on the website of the city council is a way to judge the locals’ opinion. It asks the question: “How do you feel about renaming the Lenin Park to the City Park?” The options are “support,” “do not support,” and “send your proposal to [email protected], marked Park.”
“Kherson is one of those cities where many communist placenames and monuments are still there. Although the renaming of streets and restoration of historical names did take place, the work is far from complete, and ‘Red holdovers’ are still abundant enough. For example, the city has two large parks, one of them is named the Leninist Komsomol Park, another – the Lenin Park. I think it is time to get rid of these shameful reminders about that butcher’s rule. Let us start with the Lenin Park,” Mykolaienko told The Day. “I plan to bring up this question at the next session of the council, to be held on September 19, and I hope that councilors will support me. Provisionally, I propose to call it just the City Park. When the war is over, I think we will have enough heroes to honor with the name of this object.”
It should be noted that de-Sovietization of street names began under the then secretary of the city council Zoia Berezhna, who presided over restoration of historical names. For instance, Lenin Street became Soborna, Karl Marx Street – Potiomkina, and Krasnoflotska Street – Bohorodytska. This idea is somewhat opposed by local patriots who believe that promotion of the old names often advances the cause of Russian Empire in Kherson and does not represent the city as part of Ukraine.
Regarding the park itself, it is the oldest in Kherson. Therefore, local historian Serhii Diachenko says, it needs special attention. “The struggle against fascism in the 20th century ended up prolonging existence of another totalitarian formation, the Soviet system. Communism, and more precisely Stalinism, are still with us, if not in principles, then definitely in names of streets, parks, and squares. Ukraine has finally to put an end to this attribute of a bygone era. Therefore, I fully support the initiative to rename the beautiful Kherson park,” Diachenko said. “Since its foundation in 1785, the park was called first Denysivsky until 1880 (in honor of the founder, deputy governor of Kherson governorate Denys Karnovych), then Oleksandrivsky until 1927 (in memory of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Alexander II), and more recently the Taras Shevchenko Park until 1939. Regarding the proposed name, I think that the City Park is now the most acceptable because it is not just the oldest park in Kherson, but actually the most urban too. The idea of the Kherson park was in its accessibility to every citizen who could enter it freely, free of charge. This is a very important detail, which indicates the humanistic principles of the city’s builders.”
