Kyiv-based History Platform debuts QR code tour featuring Ukrainian historical figures

The History Platform NGO launched the project "Streetcode: history at every step." 

ShoTam reports that thanks to this idea, Ukrainians can learn more about famous historical figures.

What is the problem?

Ukraine is removing Soviet and Russian Imperial toponyms in the names of streets and other objects, choosing the names of Ukrainian historical figures that significantly contributed to Ukrainian culture, development, or life. Often these names are less known than the ones that were forced by the regime in the Soviet times. 

"The new surnames in the names of the streets that appear with decommunization still resonate with many as something unknown or little-known,"  said the organizers of the project. "We really want the streets, squares, and metro stops not to be silent but to speak."

What is the solution?

"Streetcode: history at every step" is a new Ukrainian-centric project from the NGO Historical Platform that wants to fill the gaps in the historical memory and knowledge of Ukrainians.

How does it work?

The idea is to tell Ukrainians about historical figures using QR codes in different city locations. Any resident or guest of the city can scan the code with their mobile devices. The link leads the user to the page where they can learn about this particular person.

At the end of March, the NGO History Platform signed the first Memorandum on cooperation with the Department of Promotion and Tourism of the Kyiv City State Administration.

The team plans to start with Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, as a first point of the project this summer and simultaneously start scaling throughout Ukraine.

Among the first ten street codes, there will definitely be three poets, one hetman, two military men, two historians, one public activist and war hero, and a whole family of princes.

The first street code will be the Ukrainian historian and political figure Mykhailo Hrushevskyi.