Vladikavkaz, Russia, May 30, 2018
Photo: blagos.ru There have been several encouraging reports lately of the names and image of Lenin and other communist leaders being removed in Russia and Ukraine in favor of Church figures and historic Church-inspired names.
A monument to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was erected where a Lenin statue once stood in the village of Novoselskoe in the Ukrainian Odessa Province on May 22, and the eastern part of Lenin Square was returned to its historical name of Cathedral Square in Lenin’s birthplace of Ulyanovsk, along the Volga River in Russia, to cite the most recent examples.
Now the Vladikavkaz Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is reporting that local Vladikavkaz authorities decided on Friday to change the name of Voikov Street back to its historical name of Nativity Street. The decision came in direct response to an appeal from His Eminence Archbishop Leonid of Vladikavkaz and Alaniya.
Nativity Street is one of the oldest in the historical section of the city, deriving its name from the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos located on it. It was renamed by Soviet authorities in honor of Pyotor Voikov, one of the organizers of and a direct participant in the demonic murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his holy family in Ekaterinburg.
The diocese notes that the decision to rename the street now is especially symbolic and fitting, as this year marks the centenary of the martyrdom of the last royal family of Russia.
The Department of Architecture and Urban Planning will soon record the new name in the relevant legal documents and assign numbering for the houses and buildings on the street.
In August 2016, Voikovskaya train station in Moscow was also renamed as “Baltic.”
Follow us on Facebook!
