Ukraine's Soviet Streets

Twenty Four years after gaining independence from Russia the cities of Ukraine still bear the scars of Russia's cultural and political imperialistic rule. The cultural hegemony of Russia over Ukraine can be seen in the country's maps, particularly in the preponderance of Soviet street names.

How to Find Lenin Square is a detailed analysis of the frequency and preponderance of Soviet street names in Ukraine. The article includes a number of maps of Ukrainian cities, in which the streets with Soviet era names are colored red. Some of the most popular Russian street names include 'Lenin', 'Felix Dzerzhinsky' (founder of the Russian secret police) and references to the Soviet space program.

The article also contains an analysis of the preponderance of Soviet influenced street names in Ukraine by longitude. This includes a bar chart showing the frequency on Russian street names by each 0.5 degree of longitude (moving from west to east). This bar chart shows that only in the very west of Ukraine is the Soviet era not still commemorated in the street names of Ukraine.