UKRAINE AND UKRAINIAN TOPONYMS IN CZECH URBANONYMY

Abstract

This research of Czech urbanonyms is based on the official register of streets RÚIAN, which is administered by the Czech Land Surveying and Cadastral Office. A number of street names in Czechia were motivated by Ukrainian toponyms or directly by the name of this state. These toponyms are used in street names in their Czech forms, i.e. as exonyms (e.g. Bělocerkevská from Czech exonym Bílá Cerekev for Ukrainian town Біла Церква ‘Bila Tserkva’). Detoponymic urbanonyms are often combined and form whole urbanonymic systems. Several motivations as well as time layers can be distinguished: 1. After the 1st and the 2nd World War, streets were named after the places of important battles on the territory of Ukraine (e.g. Zborovská, Sokolovská). These places were thus primarily viewed through their role in Czech history, they become a part of the creation of the contemporary "cult" of brave Czech soldiers. 2. In the communist period (1948‒1989), the main function of these commemorative urbanonyms was to declare friendly relations with other socialist states. In some cases, urbanonyms could be also motivated by some similarity between Czech and Ukrainian urban space (e.g. houses built in style of socialist realism in Kyjevská). 3. In the post-communist era, new detoponymic names of streets and public spaces currently declare cooperation between Czech and Ukrainian cities (e.g. Užhorodská) and regions (e.g. Podkarpatská). 4. In 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a number of streets in the world were renamed to express solidarity and support for the invaded country. New ideological urbanonyms raised in Czechia as well, Ukrajinská (‘Ukrainian’) in Pilsen and Ukrajinských hrdinů (‘Ukrainian heroes’) in Prague.