Kyiv street may be named for Havel
Boulevard now named for a communist official likely to honor former Czech president
A boulevard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv may be renamed for former Czech president Václav Havel, who died in 2011.
The move is supported by Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and will be discussed at the next meeting of the city commission, according to Ukrainian media reports.
The street in question is currently named for Ivan Lepse, a Soviet official and Communist Party member who died in Moscow in 1929.
The change in the street name is part of a process of “decommunization” of Ukraine.
The same street was going to be renamed for Valentine Zgurovsky, but Ukrainian politician Iryna Herashchenko, who heads the Verkhovna Rada’s committee on issues of European integration, pushed for a more prominent name that would be recognized internationally. The Verkhovna Rada is the single-chamber parliament of Ukraine.
She posted on her Facebook page that the idea has received a positive response, and as a result the process involving Valentine Zgurovsky’s name will be suspended and Havel’s name will be discussed instead.
She added that in a 2006 interview, Havel said he was always ready to support Ukraine.
Havel served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and then as the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. Before 1989 he was a prominent dissident and opponent of the communist regime in the Czech Republic and one of the founders of the Charter 77 movement.
He received numerous awards for achievements an his commitment to human rights including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of the Bath from Britain and the Order of Yaroslav the Wise from Ukraine, among many others.
Places named after Havel include the main airport in Prague; a square in Haifa, Israel; and a street in Gdansk, Poland.
A bust of Havel was unveiled in the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, in November 2014.