The threat of “Little Russianization”: politicians’ views

Three civic associations — Yevhen Chykalenko Club represented by Volodymyr Panchenko; Citizens’ Platform represented by Vasyl Boichuk, and the all-Ukraine civic action “Don’t Be Apathetic,” represented by Oleksandr Polozhynsky and Serhiy Prysiazhny — are urging politicians to make public their stands on the implementation of Ukrainian interests in the spheres of language, culture, and information, and on ways to overcome linguistic discrimination against Ukrainians. These civic organizations, none of which is taking part in the election race or represents the interests of any political forces, revealed the contents of their open letter to the general public, politicians, and the government at a press conference held last Tuesday in Kyiv. They want to draw public and official attention to what they believe is the most important problem in Ukrainian society: Little Russianization, which is a major threat to our national security.

The authors of the letter note that in the process of the continuing linguistic and cultural Russification of Ukrainians, increasingly obvious Ukraine-Little Russia contours are emerging of a postcolonial territory without its own national identity. Therefore, the government, society, and politicians must be keenly aware that what we have now is the clear and present danger of the liquidation of the Ukrainian people as a historical substance. The letter also states that they must realize that all the main ills of Ukrainian society are the consequences of Ukraine’s lasting colonial status under the rule of an empire that had essentially different basic values. According to the participants of the press conference, a crucial mistake was made when the state failed to provide conditions for the renewal of the positions of the Ukrainian language. According to Vasyl Boichuk, there is always a shortage of Ukrainian-language publications at news stands and kiosks; it is always difficult to buy Ukrainian copies of bilingual periodicals; in cities in eastern and southern Ukraine the right of the Ukrainian-speaking population to obtain periodicals in their mother tongue is being completely ignored. “Current statistics show that for every Ukrainian there are 50 copies of Ukrainian-language newspapers and over 400 Russian-language ones,” says Boichuk, adding that tens of millions of Ukrainian-speaking citizens can not watch films in Ukrainian. Panchenko noted that Ukrainian remains the language of instruction in educational institutions, while at the Verkhovna Rada there are a number of bills on record protecting the Russian language. In his opinion, the state has failed to foster the revival of the genuine history of the Ukrainian people. To this day Ukrainians do not have a solid and unbiased record of their national history free from Russian myths and stereotypes.

Polozhynsky said that another threat is that the programs and principles of the political forces that have a chance to enter the new Verkhovna Rada do not contain clear-cut principles relating to the Ukrainian language, history, and Ukrainians as a nation in Ukraine. In addition, all political forces that seemed to be championing Ukrainian interests in the fall of 2004 appear to have departed from Ukrainian positions on the level of programs and declarations.

These civic organizations are therefore appealing to Ukrainians to demand from politicians and the state concrete projects and solutions relating to the development of Ukraine for the benefit of Ukrainians. According to Panchenko, their message contains no aggressive statements with regard to other nationalities. On the contrary, this idea may serve to unite all Ukrainians who really care about Ukraine’s immediate future, regardless of their ethnic origin.