11 January 2025

Map Update — De-Russification of Ukrainian Place Names

A cup of tea, three mandarins, a few leftover Christmas cookies, and whole bunch of map updates this afternoon. All of relate to the former German colonies in Ukraine today. Here’s the rundown:

  1. De-Russified place name changes
  2. Fürstenland Colony update
  3. A few new places
  4. Odessa to Odesa update for current place names
  5. Russo-Ukrainian War frontline
  6. Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection (NDSU GRHC) 

In total, 933 places were updated. If you want to see the full list, search the map for 20250110 (this is the last update date) to see the full list. The Sources page has also been updated. 

Place Name Changes
The primary reason for the update was the toponym or place name changes that went into effect in Ukraine on 19 September 2024. Numerous place and district name changes were proposed to de-colonize or de-Russsify names that were still in place from the Soviet Russian era that no longer reflected Ukraine’s present or future, or did not comply with Ukrainian language standards. Among these changes were some of the former German colonies. Some of the original names of the German colonies were replaced, while other German names returned with their Ukrainian spellings. The old names have been moved to the “Other Names and Spellings” field for each colony.

If interested, you can view the list in English or Ukrainian on Wikipedia. The English version does not have links to village pages. The Ukrainian version does, including coordinates, which I used to verify I had the right places. 

Within the modern oblasts or regions listed below are listed the German ancestral place name (colony name with the enclave or former province) followed by the current place name and oblast. In some instances, the old name is still on Google Maps along with the new one. 

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast  
  1. Nowo-Moskowa (Ekaterinoslav), now Samar, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine 
Donetsk Oblast
    1. Elisabethdorf (Mariupol enclave)now Nova Karakuba.
    2. Grüntal (Mariupol enclave), now Hrintal. Ukrainian spelling of the German colony name was restored. 
Kharkiv Oblast
Kherson Oblast

  1. Dornburg (Taurida), now Dornburg. Original German name restored.
  2. Eigental & Schöntal (Kronau enclave), now Olzhyne
  3. Judendorf (Jewish Agricultural enclave), now Stiike.
  4. Neu-Landau (Kronau enclave)now Nezlamne.

Odesa Oblast 

  1. Alt-Posttal (Bessarabia), now Yaroslavove.
  2. Bairamtscha (Bessarabia), now Bairamcha. Original name restored.
  3. Beresina (Bessarabia), now Soborne.
  4. Borodino (Bessarabia), now Budzhak
  5. Milliardowka (Kutschurgan enclave), now Miliardivka
  6. Neu-Paris (Bessarabia), now Novyi Paryzh. Original name restored. 
  7. Neu-Tarutino (Bessarabia), now Novodolynske
  8. Stern (Kutschurgan), now Svitanok
  9. Tarutino (Bessarabia), now Bessarabske.
  10. Wittenberg (Bessarabia), now Prykordonne
  11. In March 2024, Hoffnungsfeld (Bessarabia) in Odesa was to be renamed Champagne. However, the French Embassy objected to this—France is very protective of this particular name—and the decision was reversed. It still stands as Nadezhdivka.  

Rivne Oblast

Volyn Oblast

Zaporizhia Oblast

    1. Rosenfeld (Ekaterinoslav), now Adrianivka.   
    2. Petershagen (Molotschna), now Petershahen. German name restored. 
    3. Kleinwerder (Mariupol), now Malyi Verder. Ukrainian spelling of the original German name.  

Zhytomyr Oblast

Few New Places
As I find or am told about new places, I try to update the maps manually. But sometimes they pile up. This was a small pile from some indexing I have been doing of deportation locations. The indexing will no doubt bring more places to light, and I will write about it more as things progress. I also just got a list of khutors to look for that came from church records in the Beresan enclave around Christina. Those should be ready for next month’s update. 

Fürstenland Colony Update
The Mennonite Fürstenland Colony locations have been updated. Thanks to Brent Wiebe over at Trails of the Past for that update. 

Odessa to Odesa
The spelling of Odesa oblast has been updated for current place names. This was long overdue. 

Russo-Ukrainian War Frontline
Updates have been made to those former colonies that are in Russian-occupied territory at this point in the Russo-Ukrainian war. I’ve been updating the notes of each colony since early in the war. To the Black Sea Region and South Russia maps, I have added a frontline so that you can see where it is in the context of our past. I cannot update this daily as some sites do, but I will updated it monthly if anything changes. 



Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection (NDSU GRHC) 

Digital Horizons has digitized color slides of a few Ukrainian villages from what appears to be late 1995. These are a part of the Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection from North Dakota State University’s Germans from Russia Heritage Collection. You may be familiar with the 1970s Germans from Russia homesteads Father Sherman photographed in North Dakota. 

As more of the German villages in Ukraine get scanned and added to Digital Horizons, I will add links under each village in the Sources and Further Reading. These were taken right after Ukraine’s independence and certainly have historical value as perhaps the first snapshot in time after the fall of the U.S.S.R.

Search the map for “Father William C. Sherman” to get a list of places with these photos, or skip the map and view the collection on Digital Horizons. There are links for each place back to the map. 

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Last updated 12 March 2025