Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed Prime Minister Denis Shmygal to explore the possibility of Russia renaming it in Ukrainian as Muscovy (“Rosiya” – “Moscow”). So Zelensky answered To the relevant petition published on the Presidential website. On February 14, it collected the 25,000 signatures needed for its consideration.
“The issue raised in the petition requires careful consideration, taking into account both its historical and cultural context and its possible international legal implications. “I applied to the Prime Minister of Ukraine for his comprehensive study,” he said. – Written by the President of Ukraine in response to the petition.
Zelensky also instructed to involve scientific institutions and experts in the assessment of the issue.
The President of Ukraine is considering all petitions that have garnered more than 25,000 votes on his website. The initiative, which was presented for evaluation on November 23, was supported by approximately 25.8 thousand users. According to the website of the President of Ukraine, Shakhvorostova was introduced by Valeria Alexandrovna.
The author of the petition considers Muscovy the historical name of Russia. According to him, the Russian Federation, as it is now called “Kiev has captured Russian history.”
In this regard, the petition proposes to replace the words “Russian Federation” with “Moscow Federation” and “Russian” with “Moscow”. According to the petitioner, the renaming will be a “strong informational push” at the international level.
On November 29, 2022, the petition was supported by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Serhiy Kyslytsya. The next day, Nikolai Knyazhitsky, people’s deputy from “European Solidarity”, also spoke in favor of a proposal to change Russia’s name at the legislative level.
Few attempts to rename
Rename Russia to Muscovy in Ukraine, don’t offer first year. A similar initiative was put forward at the Kyiv City Council in January 2022. Deputies of the Lviv Regional Council wanted to call Russia “Muscovy”, which voted on the second attempt in December 2021 to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada and the President to rename Russia’s name to Muscovy, and the Russians to Muscovy. According to the lawmakers, this was necessary to “restore historical justice”.
In the same month, deputies of the Rivne District Council voted to pass an appropriate objection to the president and parliament. As the deputies of these councils claim, Russia uses its name illegally.
A year ago, in September 2020, Nikita Poturaev, a member of the Servant of the People party, came up with a similar idea. In his opinion, each country has the right to decide how to call neighboring states.
In February 2023, Alexei Arestovich, former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, accused Moscow of calling himself “Russian”. According to him, unlike other neighboring states, Ukraine “competes with Moscow for innate rights.”
“Actually, we are Russians here… Muscovy stole the brand and therefore we must disappear. The task is for us to disappear, to forget who we are, ”argued Arestovich.
The name “Moscow” for the territory of Russia was used in foreign sources in the XVI-XVII centuries. It was used in parallel with the ethnographic name “Russia”. Historian Sergei Solovyov noted that during the reign of Peter the Great, the government made diplomatic efforts to defeat Russia’s two names in Europe.
How did they react in Russia?
Boris Chernyshov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the LDPR, previously commented on the petition, describing it as a “stage slip” and expressed the view that such initiatives can only be addressed with a smile. In turn, the deputy of United Russia Oleg Morozov described the idea of the renaming as a manifestation of a “political dwarf complex”, which “causes nothing but a smile.”
The name “Muscovy” was also used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke of the “collapse” of Russia. Thus, he argued that in 2021, NATO wanted the country to break up and become Muscovy. At the end of February 2022, Putin said that the West is trying to “liquidate the former Soviet Union and its main part, the Russian Federation”, and if this happens, “Moscows, Urals, etc. are open.”