Cultural invasion? Ukraine de-Russifies its urban memorials.

Northeast of Lviv’s city center, among the mazelike, bending streets, a small road leads past European villas and a playground. Parked cars parallel the wide sidewalks. Rose bushes and cedar trees decorate boutique gardens.

This street – one of Lviv’s most posh and most European – was named after Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Or until last week, anyway.

In the last four months, a city commission has studied the 1,000 or so streets in Lviv and selected 53, including Tolstoy Street, to be renamed. The reason, says commission head and deputy mayor Andriy Moskalenko, is decolonization. Streets like these were named during Russian rule as emblems of Russian superiority. Those names, he says, reinforce