Moscow suburbs in Riga will be renamed Latgale neighborhood / Article

The new name of the neighborhood was chosen by evaluating the historical names of places in this neighborhood. Already before the war, the designation “statistical district Latgale” was used in the documents denoting this place.

Last year, Latgales Park regained its historical name, which was already found in the documents of 1937, while this year, the largest street in this area has been renamed Latgales Street. Taking into account these facts, the Commission of Place Names and Names of Urban Objects of Riga made a decision to assign the name of Latgale to the neighborhood as well.

“Riga will no longer have names that glorify Moscow. There will also be no more Moscow suburb as a name. Instead, there is a neighborhood of Latgale, with which the historical name is preferred,” emphasized Riga Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks (National Association/Association of Regions of Latvia).

The names of the neighborhoods have not been assigned or confirmed by any of the decisions of the Riga City Council. Both the municipality and the residents use them as historically established unofficial place names.

This means that renaming the neighborhood does not require a decision of the Riga City Council, nor should amendments be made to the decisions that include the old name of the neighborhood, as the documents are dated. On the other hand, based on the Law on Municipalities, which entered into force on January 1, 2023, the administrative division of the city has actually been canceled for Riga.

The municipality will inform the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency about the changes, and the place name “Moskavas forštate” is registered in the Place Names database, as well as the information will also be changed on the municipality’s geoportal georiga.lv and on the Riga neighborhood website www.apkaimes.lv.

Everyone can start using the new neighborhood name in their everyday life.

CONTEXT:

In the last two years, the active change of street and place names is related to the elimination of the consequences of the occupation in Riga, because along with the abandonment of the remaining street names glorifying the Soviet government and its supporters, new ones must be found instead.

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