Language Debate Splits Ukraine

© RIA NovostiLanguage Debate Splits Ukraine
Language Debate Splits Ukraine  - Sputnik International
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In Ukraine, squeezed between Russia and the states of the Eastern Europe, the unfolding drama over the new language bill elevating the status of Russian has reignited age-old debates over culture, history, and even independence and identity.

In Ukraine, squeezed between Russia and the states of the Eastern Europe, the unfolding drama over the new language bill elevating the status of Russian has reignited age-old debates over culture, history, and even independence and identity.

“One part of Ukraine does care about the ideological question of identity, like language, religion, European integration, national statehood – that is the west of Ukraine,” Serhiy Taran, director of the Kiev-based International Democracy Institute, said, adding that the east cares much stronger about social issues, such as the economy and social security.

The scenes broadcast around the world of rioting, swirling tear gas and soaring batons amidst crowds of protesters in Kiev earlier this week only reinforced the notion that language is a painful issue in Ukraine. Shortly after the bill was hurriedly rushed through parliament, hundreds of activists flocked downtown to protest what they see as an assault on the Ukrainian language, which is already eclipsed by the de facto use of Russian in much of Ukraine. 

The affair points to the fact that Ukraine is still bitterly divided by its historical experience: the western Ukrainian-speaking regions, with little historical exposure to Russia, versus the Russian-speaking east, which for long had been under Russian tutelage throughout its history.

Critics say the bill, which still requires signatures from the president and parliamentary speaker, would erode the Ukrainian language and culture entirely. Proponents argue that recognizing the “minority language” is the right – and the “European” – thing to do, especially in a country where they say nationalists are keen on deemphasizing Ukraine’s historical link with Russia.

In the Kiev protests, placards and slogans denounced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s blatant attempt to score votes by playing the “language card” and underscoring the divisions. Analysts say Yanukovych seeks to pander to his Russian-speaking electorate in eastern and southern Ukraine by raising the status of the Russian language ahead of the October parliamentary elections.

To many, it’s an issue that reaches far above politics and history and perhaps raises the biggest question of Ukraine’s short experience with independence: Europe or Russia? Some experts say that language also plays a key role in emphasizing Ukraine’s statehood.

“Because almost everyone [in Ukraine] is fully bilingual and can communicate in both languages, it often means that some people choose to speak Ukrainian because they believe that shows they’re patriotic,” Susan Vdovichenko, a researcher on linguistic policy at the U.S.-based Washington and Jefferson College, said.

About 50 percent of Ukrainians speak Russian and 17 percent of the country’s population is made up of ethnic Russians, according to the latest census figures. They have bemoaned the lack of official respect toward their own language, claiming that steady “Ukrainization,” which has passed through different phases under various Ukrainian presidents, has been aimed at negating the historical ties between Russia and most of Ukraine.

Other observers said Russian-speakers had been taken by surprise by Ukraine’s post-Soviet attempts to emphasize the Ukrainian language.

According to Russian political analyst Dmitry Babich, a surge in nationalist sentiment has also played a role in sparking concern among Russian-speakers in Ukraine: “Little by little, Ukrainian nationalism revealed not the prettiest of faces, especially in recent years.”

It’s a battle, it seems, of self-defense. Ukrainian-speakers, eager to seize the opportunity to develop and institutionalize their long embattled language and culture, fear that official recognition of Russian – already the de facto second language – will blur the distinction between identities.

Many, including opposition politicians, also fear that a hastily passed language law will open the door to overt Russian influence and threaten Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“Yanukovych has declared war not only on opposition and specific democratic values, but on independent Ukraine as it is,” jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said in a statement. “He has challenged the entire nation.”

Russian-speakers, meanwhile, fear that their culture, in many ways closely tied with that of Russia’s, is being denied to them.

“About 50 percent of the people living in Ukraine want their children to have a chance to get an education in Russian, to pass exams in Russian, so [they think] ‘Why not make it a regional language in places where these people make a substantial part of the population?’” Babich said.

Starting with the 19th century, the two conventional sides of Ukraine had been in different universes.

Central and Eastern Ukraine had been gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire, where Ukrainian language, literature and culture were regularly banned.

Western Ukraine, for its part, remained under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which periodically allowed the flourishing, if somewhat limited, of Ukrainian culture.

The Soviet Union didn’t reach the west until 1940, where it was immediately met with near-universal resistance from a self-aware Ukrainian population.

As it emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union, some observers warned that the country faced the very real possibility of splitting along the border of the former Russian Empire– again, roughly east versus west. And Crimea, home to a predominantly Russian population, narrowly avoided a messy separation in the early 1990s. But after two decades, the impassioned debate over language and culture – and, indeed, independence – has instead remained just that.


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