<
https://theconversation.com/in-russias-war-against-ukraine-one-of-the-battlegrounds-is-language-itself-201170>
"More and more Ukrainians are switching from speaking Russian to speaking
Ukrainian. In the media, this language shift is frequently portrayed as recent,
dating back to the Russian invasion of February 2022. But the invasion was not
the trigger. It was merely an accelerator.
To understand Ukraine as a nation, it is important to understand what is behind
the shift and the dynamics of the nation’s linguistic ecosystem. It is equally
important to recognise that, in modern Ukraine, language practices do not
necessarily predetermine cultural and political views.
The “language question” in Ukraine goes back centuries. It is deeply rooted in
the history of old empires and Ukraine’s position as the “borderland” between
the West and the East.
Ukraine has been subjected to centuries of enforced Russification. This has
involved the systematic persecution of the Ukrainian culture and language. The
place of the Russian language in the Ukrainian society is the result of
official and covert language policies by the Russian empire and the Soviet
Union, both of which promoted the use of Russian and discriminated against the
Ukrainian language and its speakers. Generations of Ukrainians grew up speaking
Russian.
During the “Ukrainisation” of the 1920s, Ukraine experienced a period of
reprieve. The language flourished. There was an increase in Ukrainian
publishing and in the number of Ukrainian schools. Ukrainian was the language
of the theatre and state affairs.
But this was short-lived. A much longer period of persecution followed,
undertaken with the aim of destroying Ukraine’s national and cultural identity.
During the Soviet era, educated elites were arrested in large numbers, sent to
the Gulag, killed."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
