N. Manucharyan / Analytical Bulletin 8 (2015) The Reflection of Communist Ideology in the Street Renaming Policy in Soviet Yerevan (1921-1939)1 Nelly Manucharyan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of NAS RA )
[email protected]( Keywords: urban toponyms, identity, street renaming, Soviet ideology, Soviet Yerevan, communism, street names, commemoration Introduction Toponyms (place names) are not simply abstract names in the spatial structure of urban areas, but also serve as a system of social and power relations, through which the identity of a city and society is being shaped.2 The latest works in toponymy focus on “the relation of place-name analysis with the study of power.”3 In his article “The power of commemorative street names,” Maoz Azaryahu (1996) asserts that naming streets as an administrative and political procedure is a vivid expression of power.4 According to him, the renaming process itself is an act of political propaganda with a great declarative value and public resonance.5 Since many political regimes legitimize and reinforce their authority through their use of history, commemorative street names have the effect of 1 This research would be impossible without the support of Mr. Amatuni Virabyan - the Director of the National Archive of Armenia, and Mr. Dorvard Abisoghomonyan - the Advisor to the Director of the National Archive of Armenia. We are also grateful to Mrs. Lusine Amirjanyan for multiple consultations 2 Berg L., Vuolteenaho J., Critical Toponymies: The Contested Politics of Place Naming. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2009: 3 Myers, G., Naming and placing the other: power and the urban landscape in Zanzibar // Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografi e 87, 1996, 237-46.