You know, there are phrases when you don't fully understand whether you've just been complimented or insulted. For example, “You look so good for your age,” or something alike.

This is the case with the renaming of toponyms and geographical names of Crimea. It seems cool that they have been renamed, but when you look at the list of renaming, it's actually humiliating.

22 place names were renamed, including 9 tracts (tracts, Karl!), 7 railway stations in the Crimean steppe, and a whole oak tree. I'm sorry, but this is not decolonization, this is mockery. Because my native Zalankoy remains Kholmovka, and my grandmother's village Urkusta is still Peredovoye.

Do you know why the stele with the historical name Taraktash at the entrance to the village is made of stone and so big? Because ordinary signs and plates were constantly being demolished. In the village of Yandzhu (now Putilovka), the plate with the historical name had to be installed every year during a meeting of the villagers, because it usually did not last more than a week. Some locals did not like these “non-Russian” names. And I understand why. Because when these people settled in the homes of Crimean Tatars in '44, those villages still had their authentic names: Kok-Koz, Ozenbash, Foti Sala. And now, when they are Lokhovka, Gvardeyskoye, and Sokolinoye, it seems as if nothing happened, right?

But I don't understand the other thing. Why is decolonization, which is very obvious and very understandable, so difficult for us here?

I'm sorry, but we shouldn't be proud of renaming an oak tree in Crimea.

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