The Odesa Regional Military Administration (OVA), led by its head, Oleg Kiper, has launched a massive campaign to rename streets in the city. The initiative has seen the names of 84 streets, boulevards, and avenues changed. However, the campaign has drawn additional attention after reports that the new street names may have immortalized the names of relatives of high-ranking officials.
Among the streets that have changed their names are those that were named after natives of Odessa. In particular, the streets of satirical writers, authors of the novels "12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" by Ilf and Petrov, the street of Isaac Babel, a writer who was born in Odessa and wrote the cycle "Odessa Stories", were renamed.
Zhvanetsky Boulevard, a satirical writer who was born in Odessa, was also renamed.
Commenting on the question of the reasons for renaming Zhvanetsky Street, Deputy Head of the Department of Culture of the Odessa Regional State Administration Yaroslava Reznikova stated that in 2019, the satirist received the Order of Merit, 3rd degree, in Moscow from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, it is interesting that one of the streets in Odessa - Herzen Street - will be renamed in honor of Yaroslava Reznikova's mother - publicist and poet Halyna Mogilnytska. And the memory of their family friend - Ukrainian dissident Nina Strokata-Karavanska, co-founder of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, was immortalized during the renaming of Bunin Street.
Reznikova's father, poet Oleksa Reznikov, was friends with Nina Strokata.
