Maidan Nezalezhnosti ( , literally "Independence Square") is the central square of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko Raion. The square has been known under many different names, but often it is called by people simply Maidan ("square"). The square contains the iconic Independence Monument. In the 19th century, the square contained buildings of the city council and noble assembly. Since the start of Ukraine's independence movement in 1990, the square has been the traditional place for political rallies, including four large-scale radical protest campaigns: the 1990 student Revolution on Granite, the 2001 Ukraine without Kuchma, the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–14 Euromaidan. Maidan is also a regular site for non-political displays and events; however, since 2014, most of them were moved to Sofiyivska Square or elsewhere, because making entertainment on a place where people were killed during Euromaidan was considered inappropriate. Most notably, Christmas Fairs and New Year celebrations were moved to Sofiyivska Square. Names The square received its current name on 26 August 1991, two days after the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Maidan is a Ukrainian word for "square, open space", with widely used equivalents in the Middle East and South Asia to refer to an open space in or near a town, used as a parade ground or for events such as public meetings. It comes from Persian (, "town-square or central place of gathering"), itself deriving from Proto-Iranian, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European . Compare Avestan , Sanskrit () and Latin . The word also was borrowed into neighboring Turkic languages, as in the Crimean Tatar and Turkish , which are the likely sources of the borrowing into Ukrainian. is the only square in Kyiv officially designated as a "Maidan" in the Ukrainian language, as all other Kyiv squares remain designated as a "Ploscha" (, a more common Ukrainian equivalent of "square") as was used during Soviet rule. In the Russian language as spoken in Ukraine, it is also the only use of the word “Maidan” (Майдан) for a public square. Timeline of the square's names: 1869: Khreshchatyk Square (Khreshchatitskaya ploshchad) 1876: Parliament Square (Dumskaya ploshchad) 1919: Soviet Square (Sovetskaya ploshchad) 1935: Kalinin Square (Ploshchad Kalinina) 1941: Parliament Square (Dumska ploshcha) 1943: Kalinin Square (Ploshchad Kalinina) 1977: Square of the October Revolution (Russian: Ploshchad