Dnipro, Friday,
While real bombs land on Ukraine amid wild accusations about a persecuted Russian minority and that the country needs 'de-Nazifying', it might seem odd to talk about the historical roots of the Ukrainian language. Yet in fact, one of the core grievances cited by the Russians to justify their invasion of their neighbor is a law passed by the government of Ukraine three years ago to promote the use of the country's "official language". This has been claimed as a threat to the rights of ethnic Russians in the country.
Certainly, the language people speak has enormous implications for their sense of identity. However, if anything, it is the Ukrainian language and its native speakers who have something to fear from a neighboring superpower, one whose president recently said: "Ukraine has never had its own authentic statehood. There has never been a sustainable statehood in Ukraine."
However, fact number one is that the Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with attempts by the Cossacks in a region centered on Kyiv to establish autonomy from Russia. It was because the Ukrainian language was seen as diminishing Russian control of the region, that from 1804 until the declaration of Ukrainian independence in the early years of the twentieth century, it was the Ukrainian language - not the Russian language - that was suppressed, and even banned from schools throughout the then Russian Empire - which included within it… most of Ukraine!
Today, the crucial facts about this battle of the languages are as follows. At the turn of the millennium, with Crimea of course still part of Ukraine, there were over eight million Ukrainians whose first language was Russian, concentrated in the east and the south (including Crimea). The numerical strength of the ethnic Russian community in Ukraine is reinforced by the number of Russian speakers. This is why the national policy on which language can be used and where is so sensitive.
Following the March 2006 parliamentary elections, numerous regions in the east and south of the country, including Kharkiv and the major Crimean port of Sevastopol, attempted to unilaterally raise Russian's status to that of an official language. The central government in Kyiv resisted these attempts, insisting that the constitution recognized only one language - Ukrainian - as the state language.
In fact, even the pro-Russian President at this time, Viktor Yanukovych, responded to the referendum by saying that while he still saw the need for the Russian language to acquire official status, this would involve either a complex legislative process or a referendum, neither of which - in his view - were feasible at the time. He suggested instead a law regulating the use of Russian and enforcement of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. What all this underlines is that until Ukraine's Russian neighbors made it into a wedge issue, in Ukraine itself there was much more of a consensus that the language issue was far from black and white and that the country was, in reality, a mix of both of ethnicities and languages.
After all, Ukraine's Russian speakers are not by any means all Russians. Instead, during the Twentieth century, the Russian community absorbed many other national groups and minorities, notably Serbs, Greeks and Jews. So the second key fact in the language dispute is that being Russian and speaking Russian is not the same thing at all. Ukraine's charismatic president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (44) illustrates this. He is a fluent Russian speaker - but ethnically, he is Jewish.
Amazingly, at the time of the census in 2001, nearly one-sixth, or 15% of ethnic Ukrainians said that they considered Russian, not Ukrainian to be their first language! Plus, there is widespread bilingualism in Ukraine. Television there is often bilingual, with talk show hosts and their guests slipping between the two languages, maybe asking questions in one and answering them in another.
And we keep talking about the 'two languages' but Russians and Ukrainians share a lot in common and the line between the two languages themselves is far from sharp: Minority Rights Group International points out that a 'hybrid vernacular' - something combining vocabulary and syntax from both languages - known as surzhyk, is widely spoken in the east and south of the country, the areas Russia describes as 'Russian speaking'.
The law, passed in April 2019, that today is cited as a justification for the Russian invasion of Ukraine gave extra rights and status to the Ukrainian language. It obliged all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and for it to be used by civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers. This law was championed by the then President, Petro Poroshenko, who put the promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful reelection campaign, thus stirring up the simmering issue.
So, do the Russians have a causus belli - a justification for waging war - in this law? Not so fast: Petro Poroshenko lost to today’s President Zelenskyy, who promptly launched a review into the workings of the law to see if it respected the rights of all citizens. Not here, a continued attack on the Russian minority.
No, the bogus nature of the Russian claim that their "special intervention" in Ukraine is partly driven by a need to protect Russian speakers, is amply revealed by the fact that President Zelenskyy played a schoolteacher-turned-president in - wait for it - a Russian-language comedy series on Ukrainian TV! In reality, Ukraine is a multilingual land of 41 million citizens who, until recently at least, cheerfully shared multiple languages.
While real bombs land on Ukraine amid wild accusations about a persecuted Russian minority and that the country needs 'de-Nazifying', it might seem odd to talk about the historical roots of the Ukrainian language. Yet in fact, one of the core grievances cited by the Russians to justify their invasion of their neighbor is a law passed by the government of Ukraine three years ago to promote the use of the country's "official language". This has been claimed as a threat to the rights of ethnic Russians in the country.
Certainly, the language people speak has enormous implications for their sense of identity. However, if anything, it is the Ukrainian language and its native speakers who have something to fear from a neighboring superpower, one whose president recently said: "Ukraine has never had its own authentic statehood. There has never been a sustainable statehood in Ukraine."
However, fact number one is that the Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with attempts by the Cossacks in a region centered on Kyiv to establish autonomy from Russia. It was because the Ukrainian language was seen as diminishing Russian control of the region, that from 1804 until the declaration of Ukrainian independence in the early years of the twentieth century, it was the Ukrainian language - not the Russian language - that was suppressed, and even banned from schools throughout the then Russian Empire - which included within it… most of Ukraine!
Today, the crucial facts about this battle of the languages are as follows. At the turn of the millennium, with Crimea of course still part of Ukraine, there were over eight million Ukrainians whose first language was Russian, concentrated in the east and the south (including Crimea). The numerical strength of the ethnic Russian community in Ukraine is reinforced by the number of Russian speakers. This is why the national policy on which language can be used and where is so sensitive.
Following the March 2006 parliamentary elections, numerous regions in the east and south of the country, including Kharkiv and the major Crimean port of Sevastopol, attempted to unilaterally raise Russian's status to that of an official language. The central government in Kyiv resisted these attempts, insisting that the constitution recognized only one language - Ukrainian - as the state language.
In fact, even the pro-Russian President at this time, Viktor Yanukovych, responded to the referendum by saying that while he still saw the need for the Russian language to acquire official status, this would involve either a complex legislative process or a referendum, neither of which - in his view - were feasible at the time. He suggested instead a law regulating the use of Russian and enforcement of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. What all this underlines is that until Ukraine's Russian neighbors made it into a wedge issue, in Ukraine itself there was much more of a consensus that the language issue was far from black and white and that the country was, in reality, a mix of both of ethnicities and languages.
After all, Ukraine's Russian speakers are not by any means all Russians. Instead, during the Twentieth century, the Russian community absorbed many other national groups and minorities, notably Serbs, Greeks and Jews. So the second key fact in the language dispute is that being Russian and speaking Russian is not the same thing at all. Ukraine's charismatic president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (44) illustrates this. He is a fluent Russian speaker - but ethnically, he is Jewish.
Amazingly, at the time of the census in 2001, nearly one-sixth, or 15% of ethnic Ukrainians said that they considered Russian, not Ukrainian to be their first language! Plus, there is widespread bilingualism in Ukraine. Television there is often bilingual, with talk show hosts and their guests slipping between the two languages, maybe asking questions in one and answering them in another.
And we keep talking about the 'two languages' but Russians and Ukrainians share a lot in common and the line between the two languages themselves is far from sharp: Minority Rights Group International points out that a 'hybrid vernacular' - something combining vocabulary and syntax from both languages - known as surzhyk, is widely spoken in the east and south of the country, the areas Russia describes as 'Russian speaking'.
The law, passed in April 2019, that today is cited as a justification for the Russian invasion of Ukraine gave extra rights and status to the Ukrainian language. It obliged all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and for it to be used by civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers. This law was championed by the then President, Petro Poroshenko, who put the promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful reelection campaign, thus stirring up the simmering issue.
So, do the Russians have a causus belli - a justification for waging war - in this law? Not so fast: Petro Poroshenko lost to today’s President Zelenskyy, who promptly launched a review into the workings of the law to see if it respected the rights of all citizens. Not here, a continued attack on the Russian minority.
No, the bogus nature of the Russian claim that their "special intervention" in Ukraine is partly driven by a need to protect Russian speakers, is amply revealed by the fact that President Zelenskyy played a schoolteacher-turned-president in - wait for it - a Russian-language comedy series on Ukrainian TV! In reality, Ukraine is a multilingual land of 41 million citizens who, until recently at least, cheerfully shared multiple languages.
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