The Law “On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR” was enacted 20 years ago, on October 28, 1989, long before the proclamation of Ukrainian national independence. Nevertheless, it marked a breakthrough of the national democratic forces and summed up long years of struggle of the Ukrainian intelligentsia against the Soviet regime. Ukrainian was proclaimed the official language: “In keeping with the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR, the Ukrainian language shall be the official language of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.”
Ukrainian has remained the official languages over the past 20 years. It is an axiom unless one takes into account cheap political speculations and promises that, fortunately, will never become a reality (anyway, such is the opinion of sober-minded people). The editorial office of The Day has received a letter from our regular contributor Nadia Kniazev in which she writes about the anniversary of the Law “On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR.” She enclosed a letter written by Vitalia Kovalenko, a 15-year-old girl. The letter is entitled “What can I do for my native language?” This question was chosen for a poll involving The Day’s friends, young people all over Ukraine.
The anniversary of this law reminds me of Vladimir Putin and his 17 million, precisely the way the Russian prime minister described to President Barack Obama Russia’s approach to its relations with Ukraine during the US president’s working visit to the Russian Federation. He stressed that 17 million Russians live in Ukraine, and this is very important for Russia. Even as president, Putin repeatedly claimed there are 17 million Russians in Ukraine, without identifying to the source of this statistic. Still earlier in his presidency, in an interview with the popular Time magazine (December 2007), Putin declared that Ukraine’s 45-million population includes 17 million ethnic Russians, and that 80 percent regarded Russian as their mother tongue. I called Putin’s statistic into question and compared it with the official statistics.
In accordance with the UN 1995–2004 national census resolution, an all-Ukrainian census was carried out on Dec. 5, 2001. It was the first national census, considering that the previous one took place in 1989, before Ukraine’s independence. Its aim was to obtain objective information on the fundamental changes that had taken place in the socioeconomic and political spheres of independent Ukraine, and to generate a demographic and socioeconomic database, including the size of the population and a number of its characteristics (ethnic, linguistic, family, age, gender, citizenship, educational, income, occupational, migration, and others) in Ukraine as a whole and in every administrative unit.
While carrying out the census, those in charge were fully aware that Ukraine has always been a multiethnic entity, so the respondents were posed several questions concerning their ethnic origin and language.
According to the findings of the Dec. 5, 2001, all-Ukrainian census, there were 130 ethnic groups, with the Russians making up 17.3 percent, or 8,334,100 persons (the 1989 census registered 21.1 percent Russians) of the total population (48,457,000). In terms of language preferences, 85.2 percent of the respondents regarded themselves as Ukrainians and Ukrainian as their mother tongue (14.8 percent mentioned a different language); 3.9 percent of Russians considered Ukrainian to be their native language, while 95.9 percent of Russians said it was Russian. Of the entire Ukrainian population, 67.5 percent stated that Ukrainian was their native language (2.8 percent more than in 1989); 29.6 percent said it was Russian (3.2 percent less than in 1989).
The all-Ukrainian census showed that the highest proportion of Russians live in Sevastopol (71.6 percent, 270,000) and the Crimea (58.3 percent, 1,180,400). In Donetsk there are 38.2 percent (1,844,400) Russians, while in Dnipropetrovsk, 17.6 percent (627,500). There are not many Russians in Luhansk — 39.0 percent. In Ukraine’s first capital, the city of Kharkiv, 25.6 percent residents identified themselves as Russians. There were 13.1 percent Russians in Kyiv. Ivano-Frankivsk oblast turned out to be dominated by Ukrainians: 97.5 percent, with Russians making up 1.8 percent.
Where are Putin’s 17 million? No matter how you add the various indicators you will not get this figure.
In the Russian Federation the latest nantional census took place on Oct. 9–16, 2002. A total of 2,942,961 persons identified themselves as Ukrainians, which made up 10.6 percent (compared to 4,362,872 Ukrainians registered in 1989). True, 230,558 foreigners (22.5 percent) identified themselves as Ukrainians. According to this census, Russia’s population totaled 145,166,731 (compared to 147,021,869 in 1989). To make the overall picture more complete, let me refer to the numbers of Ukrainian urban and rural residents who speak Russian: out of 2,942,961, 2,935,845 stated they had command of this language. The number of those who speak Ukrainian in addition to Russian amounted to 1,815,210. There is yet another bitter statistic: only 1,267,207 of those who identified themselves as Ukrainian in the Russian Federation said they could speak Ukrainian. This means that 1,675,754 Ukrainians in Russia do not speak Ukrainian. Who is to blame for this? Not only Putin and Medvedev. The 2001 Ukrainian census did not identify ethnic Russians who have no command of the Russian language. In Russia, no one would probably understand this question.
I wonder if Barack Obama asked how many Ukrainians live in the Russian Federation. Does the 44th US president know the truth about Ukraine, Ukrainians, the Ukrainian language in Russia, and, of course, about Russia, Russians, and the Russian language in Ukraine? I would also like to know Putin’s answer to these questions: What kind of policy he thinks the Ukrainian government should conduct with regard to Ukrainians in Russia? What kind of messages should the Ukrainian political leadership address to Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and even Dmitry Medvedev.
COMMENTARIES
Vitalia KOVALENKO, 15, first-year student, Lviv College of Communications, State University of Information and Communications Technologies:
“What can do for my native language? This question is difficult to answer for some, and not too difficult for others. Many do not speak their native Ukrainian language. Others don’t bother pondering this issue, simply because they pay no attention to their vocabulary. We teenagers see nothing wrong about using foul language, we figure it’s cool. However, what does speaking your mother tongue mean?
“The Ukrainian language has one of the world’s richest vocabularies, and is one of the most melodious languages; it has many tender words. Then why do we soil it with so many dirty words? Our language is our biggest object of pride and the best thing we have. I would say it is the gem of our people. We mustn’t shun it. In order to enrich our language, we must learn to use it correctly, avoid bad words that we sometimes use in a fit of tempter, even if we regret it afterward. We must read more so as to add cultured words to our vocabulary and thus add the beauty of Ukrainian life to our inner world.
“I believe that my peers and I should learn to respect our mother tongue, rather than be ashamed of it, because it is our language, the language of our homeland, our Shevchenko, because it is our mother tongue. The most precious material values will not substitute the spirit of our people and our language.
“I am convinced that the language is not only a means of communication. It is an inexhaustible source of information about the world and about our people. It is necessary to understand that the way we speak our language is the way we demonstrate ourselves as a people and the strength we possess. Therefore, every Ukrainian should know, preserve, love, and enrich our native language — the way you tend a young vine, as Maksym Rylsky put it.”
Vasyl MARDAL, fourth-year student, Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University:
“We are not like our western neighbors who are taught to say that they are Poles when they just learn to speak. And so our language means more than a system of words and signs that serve to express one’s feelings and communicate with fellow humans. It is even more than the language of our forefathers; it is a tool with which a nation can express itself, a bridge leading to the spiritual unity with the rest of your people, a tangible factor of identity, and thus a fundamental element of world outlook. In society like ours it [the language] — or rather, our attitude to it — can serve as a litmus test that largely reveals the actual situation.
“It has become a good tradition to mark the anniversary of the Law on the Languages of the Ukrainian SSR by reminding the people of the absence of such a law in independent Ukraine, and of the language problem which, even if it exists, isn’t the way it is portrayed by politicians, especially during election campaigns. Well, it is a problem, among other reasons because it can’t be otherwise in a country with millions of residents and some 100 ethnic groups, with the titular ethnos jabbering away in two languages and a weird mixture of them. Unfortunately, the reality is such that Ukrainian is the only language that should be protected in Ukraine. A sad and bitter fact. The reasons are rooted in our servile imperial past.
“All this calls for a very interesting debate, and I hope it will take place before long — hopefully not on a bazaar level.
“I have nothing against any ethnic languages being used by any ethnic groups that live in Ukraine. I support their natural desire to protect and develop their languages in accordance with the current legislation and based on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. However, the language that needs to protected is, surprisingly, Ukrainian — not because it does not fall under the Charter or because our government is too busy to pay any attention to this issue, but because we are destroying it with our own hands, doing things that are punishable under certain articles of the Criminal Code.
John Paul II wrote that if you want to change the world, you must start with yourself. Well, what can I do in this sense? The answer seems easy (I write this knowing that there can be problems in other regions): you have to keep speaking the language. I heard my mother sing a lullaby and Christmas carols in this language. My first word was in Ukrainian, I sang carols and thanked the Lord and yelled in Ukrainian, rooting for Lviv Ukraine in a soccer match. I told my sweetheart I love you and then asked her forgiveness in this language.
“To paraphrase Charles de Gaulle, you will never learn to love your mother tongue without learning to respect other languages. Moreover, the main thing is what you say, not the language in which you say it. But despite all these truths, who are we without our mother tongue?”
Ihor LOSIEV, third-year student, Sevastopol Humanitarian University:
“Language debates have of late sharpened in Sevastopol and all over the Crimea. Increasingly often we watch local channels with politicians and scholars pretending to resolve or at least get closer to the settlement of this issue. Honestly, most such programs are dull and sometimes ridiculous, when a less learned opponent starts getting personal, referring to controversial historical events, resorting to demagoguery instead of offering clear-cut comments and straight answers to straight questions, or even trying to lead the discussion in another, preferable direction.
“All of this doesn’t look like an intellectual and constructive dialogue, does it? What should we do to revive the Ukrainian language? Enact a law that recognizes it as the official one? We have this law. This issue is on a plane other than government decrees and laws; it is in people’s minds, and it has to do with all of our society. Everyone should think what he or she can do to help the mother tongue.
“I believe the main thing is to actually use the language. Constant communication is the only way to revive any language, make it a spoken rather than written one. I love Ukrainian literature, art, and culture. Our country has the world’s most scenic environs (the last such place I visited was Chernivtsi). I am proud to be able to speak Ukrainian, even if not as often as I’d like to. On the other hand, this prompts me to travel across Ukraine and communicate with people in various localities. I guess the best thing I can do for my native language is to teach it to my future children, instilling in them respect and love for it. It is also very important to love your native language while respecting and studying others.”
