Ukrainization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Street sign in Ukraine where the Russian place names have been replaced by Ukrainian; in the Latin transcription, however, the Russian form has been preserved
“ We speak Ukrainian ”. Blackboard at the Lviv Polyclinic .
Protesters call for Russian to be recognized as the official regional language in Kharkiv (2006)

Under ukrainization ( Ukrainian Українізація / Ukrajinisazija ) means a policy that aims to influence the Ukrainian expand culture and language. The term has regained importance, especially since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, and repeatedly leads to controversial and emotional disputes between the country's political parties.

history

For centuries, the territory of today's Ukraine has been under the influence of various great empires, initially Poland-Lithuania , later Austria-Hungary and especially Russia . The various regions of today's Ukrainian state therefore experienced, in some cases, long periods of polonization and later russification . Since large parts of the east and south of the country belonged to the Russian Empire , they were exposed to significant Russification pressure from the tsarist government. In the meantime, the written Ukrainian language was even completely banned in the Russian part of Ukraine by the Ems Decree . Before the development of the term “Ukrainian”, the later Ukrainians were referred to as Little Russians and Ukrainian as the “Little Russian language”. Little Russian was classified as an independent language.

The Ukrainian language and culture flourished between 1923 and 1931. As part of the Soviet Union's Korenizazija policy , there was a temporary strong phase of Ukrainization in the territory of the Ukrainian SSR . The Soviet Union intended to integrate the Ukrainians into the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian language was explicitly promoted, the literacy rate rose sharply, the school system was almost completely converted to Ukrainian and the Ukrainian press, with government support, developed to an unprecedented extent. At the same time, the influence of Russian was strongly suppressed. Already at this time there was resistance to the Ukrainization, which was viewed by its opponents as discriminatory and "too harsh".

From the beginning of the 1930s, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin abandoned its Ukrainization policy and again favored Russian over Ukrainian. After a brief phase in the thaw around 1960, in which the social position of the Ukrainian language was strengthened again, the political leadership under Brezhnev returned to promoting Russian. The Ukrainian language has been pushed back, especially in the education sector. Ukrainian was nominally equal throughout the entire Soviet era, but in fact the language had little prestige and the use of Russian at all levels was implicitly promoted. This policy only changed when a language law was passed in 1989 that made Ukrainian the only official language. In western Ukraine , which only became part of the Soviet Union in 1939, the influence of the Ukrainian language remained greater.

When Ukraine became independent in 1991, a significant part of the Ukrainian population, particularly in eastern Ukraine, spoke preferentially Russian; according to some statistics, more than half of the population did so. Since then, a new phase of Ukrainization has started, also in predominantly Russian-speaking areas. Ukrainian became a compulsory examination subject at all schools and universities nationwide as early as 1991, while Russian was abolished as a compulsory subject shortly afterwards. By 2004 around two-thirds of all Russian-speaking schools had been converted into Ukrainian-speaking institutions, so that Russian is clearly underrepresented in the education system today. The proportion of Ukrainian-speaking schools increased from 45% in 1989 to over 80% in 2009. Laws were passed restricting the use of Russian, for example in cinemas, on the radio and on television. In 2008, some cultural workers called on the government to remove Russian television programs entirely from cable television and instead promote domestic productions. The Ukrainization of broadcasting was largely implemented through administrative means as early as 2004–2006. The Radio and Television Act prescribed balanced quotas and the subtitling or dubbing of non-Ukrainian films.

The language situation in Ukraine has since shifted in favor of Ukrainian, even if Russian is still the dominant language in some regions of Ukraine. In those parts of the country, a majority of the population is in favor of introducing Russian as a second official language with equal rights. The implementation led to a political confrontation. The language conflict took up a lot of space in the 2010 presidential election campaign, and then again on the occasion of the 2012 parliamentary elections; the language has also just been used by the Party of Regions, the initiator of a new language law, "in order to divert the sometimes disappointed regular voters in the east and south of Ukraine from real and relevant issues"; According to surveys, the status of the Russian language was one of the lowest problems for the population in eastern Ukraine as well and was ranked 31st out of 34 problems in the survey. The government relied on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, although Russian is hardly a "regional or minority language threatening to gradually disappear" according to the preamble of the Charter.

On August 10, 2012, under the government of Viktor Yanukovych, the new language law “On the Basics of State Language Policy” came into force. This law regulated, among other things, that in areas with at least 10 percent native speakers of a recognized minority language, this language can be raised to the status of a regional language. This provision led to the Russian language being granted official status in 13 of the country's 27 administrative units. Therefore, the new law was seen primarily as an enhancement of the Russian language. The promotion of other minority languages, including Romanian , Bulgarian and Hungarian, would have been possible, but no decision was ever made. The debate and vote on the language law in Parliament in May 2012 was accompanied by tumult and brawl.

After the Euromaidan Revolution, the Ukrainian parliament passed a narrow majority to repeal the language law. In the course of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 , unrest broke out in the east of the country, so that interim President Oleksandr Turchynov blocked the parliamentary decision and the law remained in force.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archives.gov.ua
  2. ↑ Little Russian Language and Literature . In: Meyers . 6th edition. Volume 11, pp.  122-124 .
  3. ↑ Wasyl Ivanyschyn, Jaroslaw Radewytsch-Wynnyzyj, Mowa i Naziya, Drohobytsch, Vidrodzhennya, 1994, ISBN 5-7707-5898-8 .
  4. ↑ С. А. Цвілюк: Українізація України . Тернистий шлях національно-культурного відродження доби сталінізму. Маяк, Odessa 2004, ISBN 9965-871-15-3  ( formally incorrect ) (Ukrainian).
  5. ^ Lenore A. Grenoble: The ukrainian SSR . In: Language Policy in the Soviet Union . Kluwer, Dordrecht 2003, ISBN 1-4020-1298-5 , Chaper three, p. 83-86 ( google books [accessed September 30, 2014]).
  6. ↑ Karoline Pemwieser: Ukrainian versus Russian. The language situation in Ukraine . Diploma thesis, Grin, Munich 2011.
  7. ↑ Gertjan Dijkink: The Territorial Factor: Political Geography in a Globalizing World . Vossiuspers Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 90-5629-188-2 , p. 359.
  8. ↑ igpi.ru
  9. ↑ Inna Sawhorodnja on UkrainianWeek.com, February 2, 2012: How to Bring Up a Ukrainian-Speaking Child in a Russian-speaking or bilingual environment ( Memento from February 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  10. ↑ Ukraine News, May 7, 2008
  11. ^ "Ukrainization" of the Ukrainian radio. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. April 23, 2004, accessed September 30, 2014 .
  12. ^ Poll: Over half of Ukrainians against granting official status to Russian language. In: Kyiv Post. December 27, 2012, accessed September 30, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Matthias Guttke, Hartmut Rank: With the languages for votes. Federal Agency for Political Education, September 14, 2012, accessed on March 26, 2015 .
  14. ↑ K. Savin and A. Stein: The language conflict in the Ukraine. Heinrich Böll Foundation , June 22, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Matthias Guttke, Hartmut Rank: Analysis: With the languages for votes. On the current language legislation in Ukraine. Federal Agency for Civic Education, September 14, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2014 : “The new Ukrainian language law, which came into force on August 10, 2012,» On the Basics of State Language Policy «replaces the» Law of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic ›On Languages‹ «Off. While the language law from the Soviet era primarily upgraded and promoted the status of Ukrainian while safeguarding the rights of minorities and non-Ukrainian nationalities, the new language law with reference to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ​​in numerous areas of the Eastern and Southern Ukraine de facto especially the Russian language, without this being clearly stated in the law. The political forces and large parts of the population - and thus the electorate - are probably also aware of this. In more and more municipalities, the new language law has recently made Russian a regional language. They can be used without restriction in all public areas. From a linguistic point of view, the novella legally cemented the coexistence of Russian and Ukrainian; a development which, on the one hand, corresponds to the factual circumstances and, on the other hand, promotes linguistic segregation in Ukraine. To what extent the new language law will also bring about a containment or even suppression of Ukrainian remains to be seen. So far there are no signs of this. But one thing is clear: as a factor that promotes integration and identification in the nation-building process, the Ukrainian language has definitely lost its importance. The "Ukrainian language fan zone" set up by the opposition, which is linguistically and locally based on the fan zone for domestic and foreign football fans at the same location in June 2012, is currently located on the Prospectus of Freedom in Lviv . However, according to the authors' observations, it is not very well attended and will probably disappear again quickly after the parliamentary elections at the end of next month at the latest. This is also linked to the hope that the political forces will turn to more urgent problems again. "
  16. ↑ Ukrainian politicians let their fists speak. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved September 30, 2014 .