The problem of bilingualism in Ukraine has long been a way of speculating on the awareness of the Ukrainian population. Some politicians try to win voter support by promising to protect the Ukrainian language from Russification, although far from all MPs have a command of their mother tongue. It is embarrassing to listen to the distorted version of Ukrainian that some of the “people’s leaders” try to speak.
On Sept. 19 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed in its first reading the draft law no. 1400 “On the Civil Service,” authored by the Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych. The bill was supported by 361 deputies, including members of the BYuT faction. Article 21 of this law states that “individuals who enter the civil service and are eligible for official posts are to meet the following requirements: ...3) have a fluent command of the state language and the Russian language.”
This provision is based on the assumption that administrative bodies in Ukraine make wide use of the Russian language in executing their official duties.
In plain English, the MPs have made it legal to use Russian in order not to be irked by the fact that they do not know Ukrainian. Let’s ignore the fact that at one time an educated person was fluent in several foreign languages, not to mention the native language. What is truly alarming about this situation is the plight of the Ukrainian language, which was hardly encouraging even before this bill was passed. This law is in fact the official introduction of bilingualism in Ukraine.
Fewer and fewer people speak Ukrainian with every passing year. Young people prefer Russian because it’s prestigious to speak it. The bulk of literature is also published in Russian. Television is not even worth mentioning. Perhaps we are not aware of this, but the Ukrainian language is gradually losing ground. No matter how hard intellectuals and nationalist youth organizations may try, the mood of the masses will triumph in society — now reinforced by the Verkhovna Rada’s constitutional majority.
Part 1, Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that Ukrainian is the state language of Ukraine. Thus, there no grounds whatsoever to conclude that Ukraine’s public administration bodies should use not only Ukrainian but also Russian or some other language as a mandatory, official, or “working” means of communication.
From this standpoint, the requirement that individuals entering the civil service should have a fluent command of the Russian language may be considered unconstitutional.
But it is highly unlikely that the MPs will rescind this decision, which enables them to speak the language that suits them. And nobody cares that bills like this are further endangering the very existence of our native language. All that is left for us to do is to speak our mother tongue so that, as the Ukrainian language vanishes, we do not lose our mentality, history, and national identity.
Andrii RYBAK, Candidate of Political Sciences:
“It is rather strange that Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc adopted this stand, even though this is one of the key points in their program and campaign promises. Moreover, there are many politicians in the BYuT who decisively condemned what they called the anti-state policies of the Party of Regions, which are aimed at introducing bilingualism in Ukraine. So it is very odd that they voted for the bill ‘On the Civil Service,’ although Tymoshenko is trying to justify this action. Yesterday she said that Ukrainian is still the official language and that this is her firm position and conviction, so this step may be seen as a routine element of political juggling, an element of political bargaining with the Party of Regions.”
Kateryna TALASHCHUK, student, National University of Ostroh Academy:
“In my opinion, this is in no way conducive to the development of the Ukrainian language. It is high time we adopted a strategy of improving the linguistic command of officials, especially those who are always in the Ukrainian public’s view. Our format is Ukrainian language fluency. This ‘bifurcation’ will never compel civil servants to speak Ukrainian — much to the detriment of their much-beloved Russian. It would be more correct to consider Ukrainian the only language of statehood. And if Ukrainian is beyond their capacity, let them speak English. At least that would show their ability to conduct a dialogue with Europe on a high communicative level. But what we have now — the Ukrainian and Russian languages on the same podium — shows that the legislative potential, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired.”
Mykhailo MATSIO, student, National University of Ostroh Academy:
“The Ukrainian population always takes a very painful view of such issues as language because this is a factor of self-identification for certain groups. Our parties often speculate on these issues, and this only strengthens the trend towards the split of Ukraine itself. The adoption of these amendments to the law in its first reading only means that politicians are not going to unite Ukraine at all, and are thus deepening the rift that may pose a threat to our country’s integrity in the future.”
Olena MOMOTOK, student, National University of Ostroh Academy:
“Under the Constitution of Ukraine, every MP must be fluent in the official language, that is, Ukrainian. Unfortunately, not everyone abides by this. I wonder how the mandatory command of a foreign language — in this case, Russian — will improve our country’s socioeconomic situation. This makes me think that it is just a case of lobbying the interests of the power-wielding majority and the owners of fixed assets who stand behind them. They failed to pass a law on bilingualism and tried to go a different route: let’s force the powers-that-be to show an example to the people. How can one bolster Russian interests? Of course, by introducing Russian as a second official language, thus enabling us to eliminate our national identity with our own hands.”
