The Union of Orthodox Women has asked the Ryazan authorities to rename the streets called Bezbozhny (godless in Russian). The local municipality has agreed and decided to rename them into Station Passages. This was reported by the Novaya Gazeta in Ryazan on March 23.
Ryazan Municipality has approved the renaming of 1st and 2nd Bezbozhny streets into 1st and 2nd Station passages. This was done at the request of the Union of Orthodox Women. The streets are located in downtown Ryazan, near Victory Square and Station Street. The authorities have decided to demolish eight dilapidated houses that now stand there and build a new residential complex.
Nikolai Bulychov, chairman of the toponymic commission, assures that the residents take this initiative with understanding. But the Ryazan communists noted that the renaming hadn’t been discussed with the townspeople. The Communist faction proposed that first a comprehensive improvement of the streets should be carried out and only then the issue of renaming could be raised.
Two days earlier, the Shaitanka (after Shaitan, an evil spirit in Islam) River in Salekhard was renamed Preobrazhenka (Transfiguration). The change was initiated by Patriarch Kirill. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church did not like the fact that the new Cathedral of Transfiguration, which was built on the embankment, adjacent to an “evil spirit” river.
