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This article is about the ethnic policy of the governments. For localization into Ukrainian language and locale, see Ukrainization (computers).

Ukrainization (also spelled Ukrainisation or Ukrainianization) is a policy of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of Ukrainian culture, in various spheres of public life such as education, publishing, government and religion.

The term is used, most prominently, to name the implementation of the Soviet korenization policies of the 1920s, aimed at strengthening Soviet power in the territory of Soviet Ukraine and southern regions of Russia. In various forms the Ukrainization policies were also carried in several different periods of the twentieth century history of Ukraine, although with somewhat different goals and in different historical contexts.

Ukrainization is often cited as a response and the means to address the consequences of previous assimilationist policies aimed at suppressing or even eradicating the Ukrainian language and culture from most spheres of public life, most frequently a policy of Russification in the times of the Russian Empire (see also Ems Ukaz) and in the USSR, but also Polonization and Rumanization in some Western Ukrainian regions.

1917-1923: Times after the Russian Revolution

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was broken up and the Ukrainians, who developed a renewed sense of national identity, intensified their struggle for an independent Ukrainian state. In the chaos of the Great War and revolutionary changes, a nascent Ukrainian state emerged but, initially, the state's very survival was not ensured. As the Central Rada, the governing body, was trying to assert the control over Ukraine amid the foreign powers and internal struggle, only a limited cultural development could take place. However, for the first time in the modern history, Ukraine had a government of its own and the Ukrainian language gained usage in much of state affairs.

As the Rada was eventually overthrown in a German-backed coup (April 29, 1918), the rule of a Hetmanate led by Pavlo Skoropadsky was established. While the stability of the government was only relative and Skoropadsky himself, as a former officer of the tsarist army, spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian, the Hetmanate managed to start an impressive Ukrainian cultural and education program, printed millions of Ukrainian-language textbooks, and established many Ukrainian schools, two universities, and a Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The latter established a Committee on Orthography and Terminology, which initiated a scholarly and methodological research program into Ukrainian terminology.

The Hetmanate's rule ended with the German evacuation and was replaced by the Directorate government of Symon Petlura. However, Ukraine submerged into a new wave of chaos facing two invasions at the same time, from the East by the Bolshevik forces and from the West by the Polish troops, as well as being ravaged by armed bands that often were not backed by any political ideology. The nation lacked a cohesive government to conduct language and cultural policies.

1923-1931: Early years of Soviet Ukraine

As Bolshevik rule took hold in Ukraine, the early Soviet government had its own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire. Besides, the reversal of the assimilationist policies of the Russian Empire was to help to improve the image of the Soviet government and boost its popularity among the common people.

Until the early-1930s, Ukrainian culture enjoyed a widespread revival due to Bolshevik concessions known as the policy of Korenization ("indigenization"). In these years an impressive Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. In such conditions, the Ukrainian national idea initially continued to develop and even spread to a large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet republic.

The All-Ukrainian Sovnarkom's decree "On implementation of the Ukrainization of the educational and cultural institutions" (July 27, 1923) is considered to be the onset of the Ukrainization program. The (August 1) decree that followed shortly "On implementation of the equal rights of the languages and facilitation of the Ukrainian language" mandated the implementation of Ukrainian language to all levels of state institutions. Initially, the program was met with resistance by some Ukrainian Communists, largely due to the fact that non-Ukrainians prevailed numerically in the party at the time. The resistance was finally overcome in 1925 through changes in the party leadership under the pressure of Ukrainian representatives in the party. In April 1925 the party Central Committee adopted the resolution on Ukrainization proclaiming its aim as "solidifying the union of the peasantry with the working class" and boosting the overall support of the Soviet system among Ukrainians. A joint resolution aimed at "complete Ukrainization of the Soviet apparatus" as well as the party and trade unions was adopted on April 30, 1925. The Ukrainian Department of Education was charged with overseeing the implementation of the Ukrainization policies. Thus, Mykola Skrypnyk, the head of the department for years to come, became a main leader of the Ukrainization program.

The rapidly developed Ukrainian-language based education system dramatically raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural population. By 1929 over 97% of high school students in the republic were obtaining their education in Ukrainian and illiteracy dropped from 47% (1926) to 8% in 1934.

Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized — in both population and education. Between 1923 and 1933 the Ukrainian proportion of the population of Kharkiv, at the time the capital of Soviet Ukraine, increased from 38% to 50%. Similar increases occurred in other cities, from 27.1% to 42.1% in Kiev, from 16% to 48% in Dnipropetrovsk, from 16% to 48% in Odessa, and from 7% to 31% in Luhansk.

Similarly expansive was an increase in Ukrainian language publishing and the overall flourishing of Ukrainian cultural life. As of 1931 out of 88 theatres in Ukraine, 66 were Ukrainian, 12 were Jewish (Yiddish) and 9 were Russian. The number of Ukrainian newspapers, which almost did not exist in 1922, had reached 373 out of 426, while only 3 all-republican large newspapers remained Russian. Of 118 magazines, 89 were Ukrainian. Ukrainization of book-publishing reached 83%.

Most importantly, Ukrainization was thoroughly implemented through the government apparatus, Communist Party of Ukraine membership and, gradually, the party leadership as well, as the recruitment of indigenous cadre was implemented as part of the korenization policies. At the same time, the usage of Ukrainian was continuously encouraged in the workplace and in government affairs. While initially, the party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking, by the end of the 1920s ethnic Ukrainians composed over one half of the membership in the Ukrainian communist party, the number strengthened by accession of Borotbists, a formerly indigenously Ukrainian "independentist" and non-Bolshevik communist party.

In the all-Ukrainian Ispolkom, central executive committee, as well as in the oblast level governments, the proportion of Ukrainians reached 50.3% by 1934 while in raion ispolkoms the number reached 68.8. On the city and village levels, the representation of Ukrainians in the local government bodies reached 56.1 and 86.1, respectively. As for other governmental agencies, the Ukrainization policies increased the Ukrainian representation as follows: officers of all-republican People's Commissariat (ministries) - 70-90%, oblast executive brunches - 50%, raion - 64%, Judiciary - 62%, Militsiya (law enforcement) - 58%.

The attempted Ukrainization of the armed forces, Red Army formations serving in Ukraine and abroad, was less successful although moderate progress was attained. The Schools of Red Commanders (Shkola Chervonyh Starshyn) was organized in Kharkiv to promote the careers of the Ukrainian national cadre in the army (see picture). The Ukrainian newspaper of the Ukrainian Military District "Chervona Armiya" was published until mid-1930s. The efforts were made to introduce and expand Ukrainian terminology and communication in the Ukrainian Red Army units. The policies even reached the army units in which Ukrainians served in other Soviet regions. For instance the Soviet Pacific Fleet included a Ukrainian department overseen by Semyon Rudniev.

At the same time, despite the ongoing Soviet-wide anti-religious campaign, two Ukrainian national Orthodox churches were created, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church (UAOC) (See History of Christianity in Ukraine). The Bolshevik government initially saw the national churches as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church, always viewed with great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of the defunct Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.

Ukrainization even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR, particularly the areas by the Don and Kuban rivers, where mixed population showed strong Ukrainian influences in the local dialect. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications was started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five administrative districts in southern Russia.

Early-1930s to mid-1980s

Starting from the early 1930s, the Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed. "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian newspapers, publications, and schools were switched to Russian. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were purged, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party.

In the following fifty years the Soviet policies towards the Ukrainian language mostly varied between quiet discouragement and suppression to persecution and cultural purges, with the notable exception for the decade of Shelest's leadership in the Soviet Ukraine (1963-1972).

The mid-1960s were characterized by moderate Ukrainization efforts in governmental affairs as well as the resurgence of the usage of Ukrainian in education, publishing and culture. Eventually, All effects of Ukrainization were undone yet again and Ukraine gradually became russified to a significant degree. These policies softened somewhat only in the mid-to-late 1980s and were completely reversed again in newly-independent Ukraine in the 1990s.

Post-1991: Independent Ukraine

On 28th of October 1989, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR changed the Constitution and adopted the Law on Languages. The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language, while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian. Other languages might be used along with Ukrainian in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities. Citizens should have the guaranteed right to use their native or any other languages. A citizen was entitled to address various institutions and organisations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable to the parties. After the Ukrainian accession of independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union the law, with some minor amendments, remained in force in the independent Ukrainian state.

Adopted in 1996, the new Constitution of Ukraine confirmed the official state status of the Ukrainian language, and guaranteed the free development, use, and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine.

The elected government implemented policies to broaden the use of Ukrainian and mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. The educational system in Ukraine was transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that was about 48% Ukrainian to one with 75% of Ukrainain schools.

At the same time, the transition's character was smooth and gradual, especially compared to the similar processes in other post-Soviet states. The share of secondary school students obtaining education in Ukrainian increased over the first decade from 47.9% to 67%, which roughly corresponds to the share of native Ukrainian speakers - 67.5%. However, the schools continued to be transferred to the Ukrainian language of instruction well past the end-1990 when their share reached the share of the Ukrainophone population, and the process continues to this day. At the end of the 1990s, about 50% of professional school students, 62% of college students and 67% of university students (cf. 7% in 1991) studied in Ukrainian. In some cases, the abrupt changing of the language of instruction in institutions of secondary and higher education, led to the charges of assimilation, raised mostly by the Russian-speaking population. However, the transition mostly lacked the controversies that surrounded the de-Russification in several of the other former Soviet Republics.

In two presidential elections, in 1994 and 2004, the role of languages in Ukraine was an important election issue. In 1994 the main opposition candidate, Leonid Kuchma, in an attempt to widen his political appeal, expressed his support for the idea of Russian becoming the second state language, as well as promised to improve his knowledge of Ukrainian language. In addition to the stagnating economy, the language issue likely contributed to Kuchma's victory in the election; but while his knowledge of Ukrainian noticeably improved, Kuchma did not follow on his pledge to make Russian a state language during the 10 years of his presidency. In 2004 an election promise by Viktor Yanukovych to adopt Russian as the second official language might have also increased the turnout of his base, but it was rebutted during the campaign by his opponent (Viktor Yushchenko), who pointed out that Yanukovych could have already taken steps towards this change while he was a Prime Minister of Ukraine if this had really been his priority. Yanukovych eventually lost that presidential election, but is now leading the largest faction in the Ukrainian parliament.

According to the recently-enacted (2005) laws on civil and administrative procedure, all legal and court proceedings in Ukraine are to be conducted in Ukrainian. This does not restrict, however, the usage of other languages, as the law guarantees interpretation service for any language desired by a citizen, defendant or witness. Nonetheless, on September 6, 2005, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticised the measure issuing a statement that the change infringes on the rights of the Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens. In response, the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Ohryzko expressed his astonishment at the Russian Foreign Ministry's commentary. In this connection he cited Russian law provisions, which state that the Russian language is used Russia-wide by every body of state authority and local self-government, as well as by public organisations. As Mr. Ohryzko stressed, after all, this matter is solely Ukraine's own affair.

During the most recent parliamentary election the status of Russian language in Ukraine again became an important electoral issue. The leading opposition party, Party of Regions, promised to introduce two official languages, Russian and Ukrainian, on the national and regional levels.. On the national level it requires a change to Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which the party hopes to achieve. Before the election in Kharkiv, and following the election in the other south-eastern regions such as Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and the Crimea the newly elected local councils, won by the Party of Regions (and minor supporting parties) have declared Russian as a regional language, citing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified by Ukraine in 2003. The central government has questioned such actions of local councils, claiming they overstepped their authority. In Dnipropetrovsk, the court has found the order of the city council on introducing Russian as a regional language unlawful. But, the legal battle on the status of Russian language remains to be resolved.

Further reading

• Volodymyr Kubiyovych; Zenon Kuzelia, Енциклопедія українознавства (Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies), 3-volumes, Kiev, 1994, ISBN 5-7702-0554-7
• Закон про мови (Law on languages), 1989 (in Ukrainian), English translation.
• Constitution of Ukraine.
• Ukrainian language - the third official? - Ukrayinska Pravda, 28 november 2005

References and notes

1. ^ Stephen D. Olynyk, "ANALYSIS: The status of Ukrainian military terminology", The Ukrainian Weekly, February 16, 1997
2. ^ "Ukrainization, although with less success, was implemented in the Army (School of Red Commanders in Kharkiv, newspaper of the Ukrainian Military District "Chervona Armiya" published until mid-1930s, etc.)".
   Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies) cited above Cite error: The named reference "Army" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. ^ Vasyl Ivanyshyn, Yaroslav Radevych-Vynnyts'kyi, Mova i Natsiya, Drohobych, Vidrodzhennya, 1994, ISBN 5-7707-5898-8
4. ^ Volodymyr Kubiyovych; Zenon Kuzelia, Енциклопедія українознавства (Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies), 3-volumes, Kiev, 1994, ISBN 5-7702-0554-7
5. "Rudnev Semen Vasilyevich". Library of the Far East State University. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
6. Template:Uk icon"The campaign was implemented in 35 raions of the Russian Republic most of which still exist to this day."Oleksandr Tereshchenko (2004). "Ukrainian renaissance in the south of Russia". Cultural connections of Donetsk region with the Ukrainian Diaspora. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. "Shelest came to power on the wave of post-war "Ukrainization" of the party and state apparatus of the Ukrainian SSR and the rise of the role of Ukrainian party elite on the Soviet leadership. On the background of the general policies of Russification and Sovietization significant were his declarations aimed at the protection of the Ukrainian language in school education, the printed press, magazines and books. He defended several representatives of Ukrainian culture from the accusations of Ukrainian nationalism."
   Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies) cited above
8. According to the Article 10 of the Constitution: "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed."
9. 1990-1991: according to Ivanyshyn, cited above, 47.9% of the high school students and 7% of students in institutions of higher education obtained their instruction in Ukrainian.
10. 1999: "the number of Ukrainian secondary schools has increased to 15,900, or 75% of their total number. In all, about 4.5 million students (67.4% of the total) are taught in Ukrainian, in Russian – 2.1 million (31.7%)..."
    "Annual Report of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights “On the situation with observance and protection of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine” for the period from April 14, 1998 till December 31, 1999"
11. 2003-2004 According to the Kiev City Main Education and Science Board, there were 16 schools in Kiev with the instruction in Russian language. However, the list of these 16 schools published by the board's web-site, contains errors. For instance the board lists the City School #300 as still Russian in 2003-2004, while, according the school's own web-site it was switched to Ukrainian as early as in 2000.
12. 2006: "In practice, people are deprived of an opportunity to fulfil their ambitions in the Russian language, native for one third of the Ukrainians and for the majority of the Left-Bank Ukraine. In Central and Western Ukraine there are practically no Russian schools left. In 16 oblasts out of 13,000 schools, only 26 are Russian (0.2%). Even in Kiev there are almost no Russian schools left: 6 out of 452. The situation in higher education is even worse. In 19 oblasts there is not a single institution with the instruction in Russian. In Ukrainian schools, Russian literature is included in the international literature course and children have to learn Gogol in the Ukrainian translation. Only in Donbass and the Crimea is the full-fledged Russian education preserved."
    Volodymyr Malynkovych (January, 2006). "Ukrainian perspective". Politicheskiy Klass. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. Population composition by the native language according to the Ukrainian Census (2001).
14. "Annual Report of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights “On the situation with observance and protection of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine” for the period from April 14, 1998 till December 31, 1999"
17. Russian language is legalized. Party of Regions information server
18. Borys Kolesnikov: Both languages, Russian and Ukrainian need protection. Party of Regions information server
19. Ukrainian Region Makes Russian Official Language MosNews. Retrieved on 2006, 07-06
20. Ukraine leader to ask court to ban local Russian-language status RIA Russian News and Information Agency. Retrieved on 2006, 07-06
21. In Dnipropetrovsk the court has cancelled the regional status of Russian korrespondent.net
22. Mykolaiv city council reconfirms language vote 5TV Retrieved on 2006, 07-06

• History of Ukraine
• Anti-Polonism
• Soviet internal politics
• Cultural assimilation