1st Edition
Encountering Toponymic Geopolitics Place Names as a Political Instrument in the Post-Soviet States
This book provides cutting-edge insights on contemporary geopolitical toponymic policy and practice in post-Soviet countries. It examines the political features of place naming as a reflection of contemporary political discourse.
With multidisciplinary insights from leading scholars, chapters explore a range of topics drawing on critical political toponymy and traditional methods. Contributions examine how the toponymic system can act as a symbol of national identity, the regional geopolitics of toponymy, and geopolitical patterns in contemporary renaming. The historical roots of toponymic decolonization are analyzed, as well as indigenous toponymy and politics, and toponymic aspects of people's daily lives. The book explores a wide range of processes in the post-Soviet realm, including power, identity, economy, social order, and how political power is changing/transforming. It considers how these processes are distributed through various geopolitical and political-economic technologies.
Offering empirically rich research from a variety of regions to give insights beyond "Western" perspectives, this book is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of post-Soviet place naming. It will appeal to students and researchers in human geography, politics, sociology, Eastern European studies, onomastics and cultural studies.
1. Encountering Toponymic (Geo)politics in the Post-Soviet States: Introduction.
Sergei Basik
2. The "Ultimate Toponym" and National Imaginaries in Georgia and Azerbaijan: Inhibiting Imaginaries of Borchali among Georgia’s Azeri-Turks
Karli-Jo T. Storm
3. Nation-Building by Virtue of the Local Renaissance: "Exemplary" Decommunization of Street Names in Vinnytsia, Ukraine
Oleksiy Gnatiuk
4. Representation of Regional Identity in Toponymic Policy of Kazan (Russia)
Marina Golomidova
5. Communist Markers in the Information Space of Post-Communist Society: The Case of Ukraine
Aleksander Kuczabski
6. Toponymic Transformation in the Capital Centers of the North Caucasus: The Politics of Identity and Memory
Valeri Thakahov
7. Naming the Arctic and Siberia: The Role of Cartographic Agencies in the Soviet Toponymic Policy and Practice
Nadezhda Mamontova
8. Radical Memorialization in Kazakhstan: Spaces, Places, and Capitals
Kulshat Medeuova and Zhomart Medeuov
9. Onomaturgies of Toponymic Commodification in Minsk, Belarus
Jani Vuolteenaho and Sergei Basik
10. Conclusion: Toward the Future Post-Soviet Political Toponymies
Sergei Basik
Biography
Sergei Basik is a college professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Conestoga College, Canada.