Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday backed a decision to rename a Ukrainian town to New York in a bid to distance itself from its Soviet past. The town of Novgorodske in the eastern Donetsk region campaigned for years to get its old name back. […] German settlers and members of the Mennonite Church, who came to Russia under Catherine the Great, founded the town in 1892. The settlement was named after the Big Apple because the wife of one of the founders was of American origin. In 1951, Soviet authorities changed its name for ideological reasons. …