[13] During the Soviet period, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, officials engaged in a significant renaming campaign to promote Bolshevism,[c] replacing thousands of historical placenames in the country of both Russian and Ukrainian origin with generic propaganda toponyms based on prominent communist symbols and figures.
[23] In the 1980s, following the Soviet adoption of the liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika, Soviet Ukrainian and local governments carried out amongst the first[d] limited derussification as they gained greater autonomy,[23] returning some historical placenames and modifying others, notably with the renaming of the city and oblast of Rivne on 11 June 1991 to bring it in line with Ukrainian language standards.
[28][29][30][23] Following the months-long Euromaidan protests and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, hundreds of placenames dedicated to Russian communist figures and the Soviet Union were changed as major decommunization legislation was enacted in 2016.
[7][32] After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, derussification gained widespread public support for the first time and became part of the Ukrainian government's announced decolonization policies.
[e][40] As of 14 February 2025, multiple administrative divisions and hundreds of populated places have had their names changed or modified as part of derussification.