On October 14, at half past six at Kyiv’s St. Sophia square, a rally in defence of the Ukrainian language will be held on the initiative of the People’s Committee for Protection of Ukraine. Its slogan will be “Let’s Defend the Language! Let’s Save Ukraine!” The People’s Committee’s press service informs that all citizens of Ukraine who are not indifferent to the fate of the Ukrainian language and national independence are invited to participate. It is expected that the event will be attended by leaders of political parties and public figures, including Leonid Kravchuk, Dmytro Pav-lychko, Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, Viacheslav Kyrylenko and others. The press service quotes the Committee’s appeal: “You know that a draft law ‘On Languages in Ukraine’ was registered in the Verkhovna Rada; this bill was brought up by the Party of Regions, the Communists and the Lytvyn Bloc. It is aimed at the establishment in Ukraine of a regime of total Russification, and thus is an instrument of destruction of the Ukrainian language. If you will remain indifferent, your dignity will be trodden on and your country will become a colony of Russia, where you will be considered a second-class citizen and your children will die in imperial military adventures.” The rally’s organizers ask participants to stand together and demand from the authorities to withdraw the anti-Ukrainian bill. They also urge the government to take decisive measures to introduce the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The Institute of Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), together with the Potebnia Institute of Linguistics, on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences, and at the request of the Verkhovna Rada chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, have analyzed seven “language bills” and recommended none of them for adoption by the Parliament. This information was given to UNIAN by the director of the Institute of Ukrainian Language of the NASU Pavlo Hrytsenko. “We have recommended not to consider any of them because they are unfinished, contain many contradictions, and strengthen the regionalization and division of Ukraine,” the scholar emphasized. He said scholars have carefully reviewed, among others, the bill No. 1015-3 “On Languages in Ukraine” authored by the Party of Regions MP Oleksandr Yefremov, the Communist leader Petro Symonenko, and Serhii Hrynevetsky of the Lytvyn Bloc, which has caused the biggest stir. “Such a law may not be adopted. Its spirit underscores all the regional peculiarities, as opposed to uniting the country,” said Hrytsenko. Moreover, in his view, the disturbance which was caused by the Yefremov-Hrynevetsky-Symonenko bill is not going to benefit the Russian language either. “It generates opposition to Russian, which is undesirable as Ukrainian people should be ready for wider communication. But trying to do it that way hurts the interests of both Ukrainian and Russian. This, unfortunately, was not understood by the authors of the bill,” said the scholar.
