"Speech disputes"or why Ukraine is abandoning the Russian language – an excursion into history (video)

Many Ukrainians have switched from Russian to Ukrainian in recent years. However, some still consider Russian their native language, using it at least at home. The problem of the status of the Russian language has been repeatedly used as one of the tools in the political struggle.

Native language – Ukrainian or Russian

A unique video created by scientists and enthusiasts will help resolve speech disputes: “The language question. How millions of Ukrainians became Russian-speaking”. In it the creators share historical facts about the Ukrainian languageand many will probably discover interesting information. It is worth noting that 80% of the Ukrainian audience have completely abandoned Russian content, the survey shows. And the authors of the video ask and answer the question themselves:

“How did it happen that millions of Ukrainians not only do not know Ukrainian and speak Russian, but also sincerely consider it their native language? Definitely, we are all the product of a special operation that lasts several hundred years. And this special operation is much more sophisticated and effective than The so-called “SVO”. Muscovy is succeeding much better in propaganda wars.”

This video was created by scientists from the National Reserve “Sofia of Kiev”, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the OLOS charitable foundation.

A little history

Russia received its name by appropriating the history of Rus'. The name Russia goes back to the Greek Ῥωσία – this is how the name was conveyed in the Byzantine Empire from the 10th century states of Rus'. The Rus are an ancient people, their origin and identity are the subject of much debate. This is the people who gave their name to and formed the top of the medieval Eastern European state – Rus', in modern historiography known as Kievan Rus. In the singular, the representative of Rus' was called Rusin.

The Ukrainian language originated in VI-VII centuries AD as a result of the degradation of the Proto-Slavic language. According to scientists, the period of development of the Ukrainian language from the middle of the 9th century was known as Proto-Ukrainian, and from the end of the 14th century – as Old Ukrainian.

Imperial period

From the end of the 15th century, the term Russia began to be used as the self-name of the Russian state with its center in Moscow. During the reign of Peter the Great, a merciless struggle against the Ukrainian language began. In history literary Ukrainian language allocate two main periods: Old Ukrainian (XIV – mid-XVIII centuries) and modern language (from the end of the XVIII century). Peter I spoke about Ukrainians like this:

“This Little Russian people is both very smart and very cunning: he, like a lusty bee, gives the Russian state both the best mental honey and the best wax for the candle of Russian enlightenment, but he also has a sting.”

In 1720 Moscow ruler banned printing in Ukrainian and ordered remove texts in this language from church books. In 1731 Empress Anna Ivanovna replaced all Ukrainian books of the old press to the “correct” ones, that is, to the Russians. In 1763 Catherine II banned teaching in Ukrainian at the leading educational institution of those times – the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. There have been no changes in the policy of Russian rulers for a hundred years, and in 1862 closed all free Ukrainian Sunday schools for adults.

One of the most famous anti-Ukrainian documents was Valuevsky circularadopted in 1863. The authors of the video talk about its content:

“Valuevsky's circular says – there was no Ukrainian language, there is no and there cannot be. And whoever doesn’t understand this is an enemy of Russia.”

However, this thesis is easy refute the graffiti on the walls of St. Sophia of Kyivwhich date back to the 11th-12th centuries. Scientists consider the inscriptions one of the evidence that the spoken language of the historical center of Rus', Ukraine, was Proto-Ukrainian (a hypothetically restored ancestor language), says historian Nelya Kukovalskaya.

The policy of Russification affected school education back in the 19th century – in 1864, Moscow authorities banned teaching schoolchildren in Ukrainian. Subsequently, the policy of abolishing everything Ukrainian advanced – Moscow authorities Ems Decree* it was forbidden to import Ukrainian books from abroad, to sign texts under music in Ukrainian and to stage Ukrainian-language performances. But that's not all:

• In 1883, Russian Emperor Alexander III banned the baptism of children with Ukrainian names and the speaking of Ukrainian in official institutions.
• In the period from 1863 to 1888, the use of Ukrainian in other areas – education, politics, literature, theater, music and church – was banned.
• At the opening of the monument to Ivan Kotlyarevsky in Poltava, which took place in 1903, it was forbidden to make speeches in Ukrainian.

Soviet stage

After the final annexation of Ukraine in 1920, ideas destroy the Ukrainian language not only did they not disappear, but on the contrary, they gained new strength. The authors of the video note:

“In 1922, part of the communist leadership proclaimed the theory of the struggle between two cultures in Ukraine – urban (Russian) and peasant (Ukrainian), in which the first has victory.”

Later, the authorities introduced a policy of indigenization**, the purpose of which was supposedly the development of languages ​​and cultures of the indigenous population. At that time, changes were made to Ukrainian spelling, according to which individual Ukrainian words were replaced by those characteristic of the Russian language. Thanks to indigenization, a new generation of Ukrainian intelligentsia was formed, which was then physically destroyed by the Moscow authorities.

Gradually, the children began to communicate less in Ukrainian. The main reason is the habit and language of the family. Since the 1980s, in the Ukrainian SSR, teachers of the Russian language were paid more, in contrast to teachers who taught Ukrainian.

In total, there are more than 80 laws in history that prohibit or restrict the use of Ukrainian. This phenomenon is called “linguocide” .

Modern period

Ideas about appropriating someone else's history dominate in Russia to this day. In 2016, at the entrance to the Kremlin, a 20-meter monument to the Kyiv prince Vladimir the Great, who died 132 years before the founding of Moscow, was built.

First of all, textbooks with history in their own way are brought to the territories occupied in Ukraine and road signs are changed so that the names on them are in Russian. The authors of the video say:

“That is, if you destroy the Ukrainian language, thereby dissolving the Ukrainian people, all borders will be erased. And it turns out that history is common, culture is common, rights to inheritance are common. Muscovy loves to make everything common […]. Only those who do not create and have nothing want to make common goods.”

Let us remind you that in 2024, 78% of Ukrainians called the state language their native language. All the same, 13% of citizens considered Ukrainian and Russian their native languages, and another 6% considered exclusively the language of the aggressor state.

*Ems Decree – the traditional name of the conclusions of a special meeting signed by Emperor Alexander II on May 18, 1876 in the German city of Bad Ems. Aimed at limiting the use of the Ukrainian language in the Russian Empire.

**Indigenization – a political and cultural campaign of the Soviet government on the national question in the 1920s and early 1930s, as well as during the short period of March-June 1953, designed to smooth out the contradictions between the central government and the indigenous population of the national republics of the USSR.

Source link