Statement by the Regional Council of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO, 11.07.2014

The Moscow branch of YABLOKO welcomes the decision of the Moscow Government to rename Ulitsa Podbelskogo metro station into Bulvar Rokossovskogo.

The names of terrorists, executioners and usurpers of power shouldn’t disgrace the map of Moscow and create fake guidelines for the national consciousness of the Russians including the rising generations.

In terms of this we demand from the Moscow authorities to be more consequent.

Up to now Voykovskaya metro station immortalizes the memory of the terrorist Petr Voykov who attempted to murder the mayor of Yalta in 1917 and was one of those who shot the Romanov family in 1918.

Frunzenskaya metro station bears the name of a terrorist and revolutionary who participated in the military takeover against the lawful authorities of Moscow together with Vadim Podbelsky.

In due time Lermontovskaya metro station was renamed into Krasniye Vorota in accordance with the principle of recovery of primordial toponymy in the names of metro stations. Why did the name of the great poet disappeared from the metro map and the names of Bolshevik cut-throats remained there? Frunzenskaya metro station was not renamed into Khamovniki. Isn’t time to restore justice together with the old names?

Of course injustice doesn’t end here. The name of Ulyanov-Lenin, the main usurper of power, initiator of red terror which didn’t let the people of Russia to decide their fortune at the Constituent Assembly, is is imprinted on the map od Moscow three times: Biblioteka imeny Lenina, Leninsky Prospect, Prospect Ilyicha and the Moscow metro itself bears the name of Lenin which should be abandoned. The Library named after Lenin was renamed it the old name stands for the nearby metro station. This toponymic absurd can be fixed easily by renaming the station into Bibliotechnaya. Ploshad Ilyicha station needs to be renamed into Rogozhskaya. As for Leninsky Prospect, it can be renamed into Gagrinskya after the name of the nearby square.

We reminded of our proposal to rename Leninsky Prospect into Prospect Vyssotskogo. This great Moscovite didn’t get the honorary to be fixed in any toponymic quality in our city.

Many other creative geniuses such as for example a Moscovite Marina Tsvetayeva remin in the oblivion. But not only poets, artists, musicians.

There are no mentions of the voivode (an army commander) Mikhail Vorotinsky, who saved Moscow in 1272. He defeated the Tatar Khan who threatened to destroy Moscow. This victory meant a lot to Moscow and the whole Rus.

A good precedent of revival of historic memory could be the renaming of Voykovskaya metro station into Vrotinskaya.
The Moscow branch of Yabloko is ready to propose the Moscow Government a complex programme on restoration of the historic memory of Moscow including proposals not only to rename the metro stations, streets and squares but to set monuments and memorial plaques.

The toponymy of Moscow which contains corpses of Bolshevik leaders in its middle will remain a hotbed of man-hating ideology and Bolshevik practice until such a programme is brought into effect.
The toponymy of Moscow should become a pantheon of national memory about the heroes, devotees and geniuses and not the panopticon of an ugly cult of political bandits, usurpers and murders.

Chairman of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO,
Sergei Mitrokhin