Changing names

[Esterix]

I noticed that in Eastern countries as Russia and Ukraine it was very common to change, even several times, the names of towns and streets. Is there some explanation of this habit not so common in western Europe?

[IreneLviv]

Often change of rule /regimes is the explanation
During 1900/40 only, the rule in Lviv changed 5 times!
In Lviv nearly all of the streets have been several times renamed - some of them 5 -7 times.

[Esterix]

Unbelievable...
But still difficult to understand why every new ruler/regimen felt important or necessary to change the town/street names in such an obsessing way.
Rulers/governments/regimens changed a lot of times also in other european countries, but names weren't changed, at least town names.
Perhaps in the slavic culture a name is felt more as a sign of power than a sign of historical meaning.
Or in other words...
Instead of feeling names as an element of history, a sign of a very long existence, (the older, the more prestigiuos), it's considered more important who gives the name, the one who has the power to change names and leave a sign in the history.
Well, I've never thought about this subject... Just some considerations...
But the question is interesting.

[IreneLviv]

See how only one street in Lviv was renamed:
Nowy Swiat (New World) in 1840/86 – Leon Sapieha St ( he was a Polish statesman) in 1886/1940 – Komsomol St (1940/1) – FurstenStrasse (1941) – Stalin St (44/61) – Myru (Peace) St (1961/91) – Bandera Street (today)

[Hannia]

Esterix, your question is an interesting one. Up until the dissolution of the Soviet Union very little attention was paid to answering it. Since 1991 there have been a variety of books written about exactly this topic.

Today there are still locations in Eastern Europe that have several commonly accepted place names. Of course this is primarily due to geopolitical changes as Irene has stated, but it is also due to the influence of the overlap of non-homogeneous linguistic and cultural groups within the same geographic location.
________________________________________________________________________________

As per the 2001 census the ethnic demographic within the Dniepropetrovska oblast/region is as follows :
* Ukrainians – 79.3%,
* Russians – 17.6%,
* Belarusians – 0.8%,
* Jews – 0.4%,
* Armenians – 0.3%,
* Azeris – 0.2%,
* Moldavians – 0.12%,
* Gypsies – 0.11%,
* Tatars – 0.11%,
* Germans – 0.11%,
* Other – 0.95%;

[Serhii]

Esterix, you question is wonderful , as well as people who put such ones. You know the history of the Old world ( especially Eastern part of it ) gives someone no chances to be naïve . If changing names was the only crime those regimes committed …

The central street in Dnipropetrovsk has had such names

Catherine 2nd - Каrl Marks - Adolf Hitler – Karl Marks ( again )

[IreneLviv]

You mean Karl Marx?
East Ukrainian cities are still full of Lenin and Karl Marx streets and monuments - which is ridiculous
All Soviet street names in Lviv were changed for their original names, Ukrainian hero's names. and others, eg
we have Kvitka Cisyk and John Lennon streets.