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The Russian language is the most common first language in Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Kiev, the country's capital, and the most widespread second language throughout the country.
History and Background
The ancestors of the modern Russians resided in Putivl region (what is modern northern Ukraine) in the times of Kievan Rus . New waves of Russian settlers came to the empty lands of Slobozhanschyna that the Russian state gained from the Tartars in 15—17 centuries (and the Ukrainian settlers escaped to these Russian territories soon) . Before this time theses territories used the west Russian language (literary language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, common for ancestors of the Byelorussians and the Ukrainians), now the Russian language came into administration and language of the cities.
Even more Russian speakers appeared in northern and eastern Ukrainian territories during the 17th century, following the Cossack Rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Following this rebellion more northern and eastern parts of Ukraine came under Muscovite, (later Russian), rule. This brought the first significant, but still small, wave of Russian settlers into Ukraine (primarily several thousand Muscovite soldiers stationed in garrisons , out of a population of approximately 1.2 million ). Eventually, the upper classes in the part of Ukraine acquired by Russia came to use the Russian language widely.
The nineteenth century also saw a dramatic increase in the Russian population in what is now called Ukraine, as Russian settlers moved into and populated the newly industrialized and growing cities. By the beginning of the 20th century the Russians were the largest ethnic group in the following cities: Kiev (54,2 %), Kharkiv (63,1 %), Odessa (49,09 %), Mykolaiv (66,33 %), Mariupol (63,22 %), Luhansk (68,16 %), Berdyansk (66,05 %), Kherson (47,21 %), Melitopol (42,8 %), Dnipropetrovsk (41,78 %), kirovohrad (34,64 %), Pavlohrad (34,36 %), Simferopol (45,64 %), Theodosia (46,84 %), Yalta (66,17 %), Kerch (57,8 %), Sevastopol (63,46 %), Chuhuiv (86 %). The Ukrainians who settled in these cities entered a Russian speaking mileau and, for the most part, adopted the Russian language.
Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union. In reality, Russian was in a privileged position in the USSR and was the state official language in everything but formal name—although formally all languages were held up as equal. Often the Ukrainian language was frowned upon or quietly discouraged, which led to the gradual decline in its usage. Partly due to this suppression, in many parts of Ukraine, notably most urban areas of the east and south, Russian remains more widely spoken than Ukrainian.
Distribution
2001 Census
According to official data from the 2001 Ukrainian census, the Russian language is native for over 14,273,000 Ukrainian citizens (29.3 % of the total population). Ethnic Russians form 56% of the total Russian-speaking population, while the remaining Russophones are people of other ethnic background: 5,545,000 Ukrainians, 172,000 Belarusians, 86,000 Jews, 81,000 Greeks, 62,000 Bulgarians, 46,000 Moldavians, 43,000 Tartars, 43,000 Armenians, 22,000 Poles, 21,000 Germans, 15,000 Crimean Tartars.
Therefore the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine forms the largest linguistic group in modern Europe with its language being non-official in the state. The Russian-speaking population of Ukraine constitutes the largest Russophone community outside the Russian Federation.
Polls
According to a 2004 public opinion poll by the Kiev International Sociology Institute, the number of people using Russian language at their homes considerably exceeds the number of those who declared Russian as their native language in the census. According to the survey, Russian is used at home by 43–46% of the population of the country (in other words a similar proportion to Ukrainian) and Russophones make a majority of the population in Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine:
- Autonomous Republic of Crimea — 97% of the population
- Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — 72%
- Donetsk Oblast — 93%
- Zaporizhia Oblast — 81%
- Luhansk Oblast — 89%
- Mykolaiv Oblast — 66%
- Odessa Oblast — 85%
- Kharkiv Oblast — 74%
Russian language dominates in informal communication in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev. It is also used by a sizeable linguistic minority (4-5% of the total population) in Central and Western Ukraine.
According to data obtained by the "Public opinion" foundation (2002), the population of the oblast centres prefers to use Russian (75%). Continuous Russian linguistic areas occupy certain regions of Crimea, Donbass, Slovozhanschina, southern parts of Odessa and Zaporizhia oblasts, while Russian linguistic enclaves exist in central Ukraine and Bukovina.
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian language | 34.7 | 37.8 | 36.1 | 35.1 | 36.5 | 36.1 | 35.1 | 38.1 | 34.5 | 38.1 | 35.7 | 34.1 |
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mainly Russian | 32.4 | 32.8 | 33.1 | 34.5 | 33.4 | 33.6 | 36.0 | 36.7 | 33.2 | 36.0 | 34.3 | 36.4 |
| Both Russian and Ukrainian | 29.4 | 34.5 | 29.6 | 26.8 | 28.4 | 29.0 | 24.8 | 25.8 | 28.0 | 25.2 | 26.3 | 21.6 |
Russian language in Ukrainian politics
| 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 52.0 | 50.9 | 43.9 | 47.6 | 46.7 | 44.0 | 47.4 | 48.6 | 47.3 | 47.5 | 48.6 |
| Hard to say | 15.3 | 16.1 | 20.6 | 15.3 | 18.1 | 19.3 | 16.2 | 20.0 | 20.4 | 20.0 | 16.8 |
| No | 32.6 | 32.9 | 35.5 | 37.0 | 35.1 | 36.2 | 36.0 | 31.1 | 31.9 | 32.2 | 34.4 |
| No answer | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
As stated Dominique Arel (the first titular of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa) "in urban areas of Ukraine... Russian is as predominant... both publicly and at home, but the Ukrainian... government is not interested in projecting a statistical image of the countriy that would indicate linguistic parity (as in Ukraine, where surveys place the number of Russian speakers at home as close to 50%)... The... state is engaged in nation-building project aimed at minimizing the presence of the Russian language... and at encouraging Russian-speakers to learn the titular (state) language".
According to the Constitution of Ukraine, adopted by the parliament, Ukrainian is the only state language in the country, while other languages spoken in Ukraine are also guaranteed constitutional protection. Russian is the only language explicitly mentioned in Article 10 of the constitution among the languages other than Ukrainian that are guaranteed "free development, use and protection"
Ukraine has signed the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages in 1996, but it was only 2002 when the parlament adopted the law that implemented the charter. Since then, there no laws were adopted to define the territory and measures to protect the Russian language. In 2006, President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko controversionally denied the idea of any regional language in Ukraine.
Although officially the Russian-speaking population is about 30 % (2001 census) 39 % of Ukrainian citizens think that the rights of the Russophones are violated because the Russian language is not official in the country, whereas 38 % of the citizens have the opposite position (2006, survey).
The issue of Russian receiving status of second official language has been the subject of extended controversial discussion ever since Ukraine became independent in 1991. In every Ukrainian election, many politicians, such as Leonid Kuchma, used their promise of making Russian a second state language to win support. The current Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, has continued this practice. Current president Viktor Yushchenko, during his 2004 campaign, also claimed a willingness to introduce more equality for Russian speakers. His clipping service spread an announcement of his promise to make Russian language proficiency obligatory for officials who interact with Russian-speaking citizens. In 2005 Yuschenko stated that he had never signed this decree project.
The controversy is seen as a deliberate policy of Ukrainization. For example, the amount of Russian-teaching schools has been systematically reduced since 1991 and now it is much lower than the proportion of Russophones. The reduction of Russian television broadcasts and the recent decision to dub rather than subtitle Russian programmes on Ukrainian channels have also added to the controversy.
In 2006 the Kharkiv City Rada was the first to declare Russian to be a regional language. Following that, almost all southern and eastern oblasts (Luhansk, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts), and major cities (Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Yalta, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kryvyi Rih, Odessa) followed suit. By ruling of several courts, decision to change the status of the Russian language in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv have been overturned as well as in Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv oblasts. According to survey by "Research and Branding group" (June, 2006) the majority of Ukrainian citizens supported the decisions of local authorities: 52 % largely supported (including 69 % of population of eastern oblasts and 56 % of southern regions), 34 % largely did not support the decisions, 9 % - answered "partially support and partially not", 5 % had no opinion.
The official policies of the Ukrainian state continue to be discriminatory towards the Russian-speaking population. The Russian language population received 12 times less state funds then the tiny Romanian-speaking popultion in 2005-2006. The schooling in Russian is nearly stopped in all central and western oblasts and Kiev. The Russian language is forced out from the higher education as well in all the Ukraine, including the areas with a Russian-speaking majority. The broadcasting in Russian averaged 11.6 % (TV) and 3.5 % (radio) in 2005. Such discriminatory measures are seen by the authorites as attempts at reversing the Russification that had occurred previously in Ukrainian history.
Russophone community
Over the course of the 20th century, if not during the whole period of Imperial Russian rule in Ukraine, the ever-changing policies of Ukrainization and Russification have created a society that lives in south-eastern Ukraine that is thought to be neither wholly Russian nor Ukrainian.
Potentially this could cause Ukraine serious problems, and the official reasoning of those who reject making Russian official is that such a move would force Ukraine to slowly gravitate back to Russia, or, on a regional level, threaten its territorial integrity at a time of crisis.
However, some, like the French researcher Dominique Arel, hold a different opinion on the matter. Despite the ethnic mixing that took place ever since the land was settled in the 19th century by colonisers from other regions of the Empire, the people there do not share the same Ukrainian mentality as those in the central and western regions, and thus many feel alienated by Kiev's pro-Western Ukrainian orientation. Arel thinks that if Russian were to be raised to the level of state language, this alienation would promptly end, and the people would cease to feel like second-class citizens and realise that they hold equal importance in Ukrainian politics as those from the central and western regions.
A Ukrainian historian, Viktor Horodyanenko, states that "The Russian-speaking socio-cultural community is characterized by informal integrity; it appears as an independent subject in social behavior. The basic system-formative characteristics are ethnicity (there are 11,000,000 Russians in Ukraine), residence (Russophones live in the industrial cities of Eastern and Southern Ukraine), intactness of the native language among Russians, firm ties of the Russians in Ukraine with the maternal ethnic group, largely intact national traditions and Russian spiritual culture, and adherence to a single faith (Orthodoxy). For the time being, the Russian-speaking citizens do not aspire to separatism, have faith in democratic reforms, but preserve their distinctive mentality and social behaviour"
Education in Russian
The Russian-speaking popultation (according to 2001 census) and percentage of the students receiving education in Russian language in 2006/2007..
| Region | Percentage of the Russian speaking citizens |
Percentage of pupils in Russian speaking schools |
Percentage of students in І–ІІ level high schools (in Russian-speaking groups) |
Percentage of students in ІII–ІV level high schools (in Russian-speaking groups) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autonomous Republic of Crimea | 77 | 92 | 97 | 86,5 |
| Cherkasy Oblast | 6,7 | 1 | - | 0,1 |
| Chernihiv Oblast | 10 | 1 | - | 4 |
| Chernivtsi Oblast | 5,3 | 1 | - | - |
| Dnipropetrovsk Oblast | 32 | 21 | 6 | 20 |
| Donetsk Oblast | 75 | 67 | 63 | 63 |
| Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast | 1,8 | 0,2 | - | - |
| Kharkiv Oblast | 44 | 27 | 8 | 25 |
| Kherson Oblast | 25 | 16,5 | 12 | 29 |
| Khmelnytskyi Oblast | 4,1 | 0,4 | - | 0,2 |
| Kiev Oblast | 7,2 | 1 | - | - |
| Kirovohrad Oblast | 3,5 | 3,5 | - | 10 |
| Luhansk Oblast | 69 | 63 | 37 | 52,5 |
| Lviv Oblast | 3,8 | 1 | 4 | - |
| Mykolaiv Oblast | 29 | 11 | - | 0,2 |
| Odessa Oblast | 42 | 30 | 16 | 23,4 |
| Poltava oblast | 9,5 | 3 | - | 0,4 |
| Rivne Oblast | 2,5 | 0,1 | - | - |
| Sumy Oblast | 16 | 6 | - | 0,2 |
| Ternopil Oblast | 1,2 | 0,1 | - | - |
| Vinnytsia Oblast | 4,7 | 1 | - | - |
| Volyn Oblast | 2,5 | 0,3 | - | - |
| Zakarpattia Oblast | 2,9 | 1 | 6 | - |
| Zaporizhia Oblast | 48 | 37 | 10 | 15 |
| Zhytomyr Oblast | 6,6 | 1 | - | 3 |
| City of Kiev | 30 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| City of Sevastopol | 90 | 98 | 100 | 96 |
| Total | 29,6 | 20 | 15 | 17 |
Limitations on the Russian language in Ukraine
- In 2000 the British "Guardian" informed that "the Lviv city council has been trying to ban Russian-language pop music in bars and cafes and to close down a Russian-language radio station, and linguistic vigilantes have been cruising shops and kiosks, bullying retailers into dumping Russian literature, newspapers and CDs."
- On September, 2006, the fraction of Bloc of Yuliya Tymoshenko in Ukrainian parlament proposed a bill to forbid the usage of the Russian language by members of the parlament. The draft was aimed against Russian-speaking members of parlament (mainly Communist Party of Ukraine and Party of Regions) alongside with some ministers.
- In October 2006 the Russian newspaper "Moskovskiy komsomolets" reported that Boris Tarasyuk, the Foreign minister of Ukraine, issued a directive forbidding Ukrainian diplomats and members of their families to speak in Russian even at home. Boris Tarasyuk is a member of "Our Ukraine" party and was a representative of the president Yuschenko in the Ukrainian cabinet of ministers.
- On February 28 2007 the Contitutional court of Ukraine forbad the member of parlament Serhiy Matvienkov (Socialist Party of Ukraine, Mariupol) to speak in Russian during his report.
See also
Bibliography
- Русские говоры Сумской области. Сумы, 1998. — 160 с ISBN 966-7413-01-2
- Русские говоры на Украине. Киев: Наукова думка, 1982. — 231 с.
- Степанов, Є. М.: Російське мовлення Одеси: Монографія. За редакцією д-ра філол. наук, проф. Ю. О. Карпенка, Одеський національний університет ім. І. І. Мечнікова. Одеса: Астропринт, 2004. — 494 с.
- Фомин А. И. Языковой вопрос в Украине: идеология, право, политика. Монография. Второе издание, дополненное. — Киев: Журнал «Радуга». — 264 с ISBN 966-8325-65-6
- Rebounding Identities: The Politics of Identity in Russia and Ukraine. Edited by Dominique Arel and Blair A. Ruble Copub. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 384 pages. ISBN 0801885620 and ISBN 9780801885624
- Bilaniuk, Laada. Contested Tongues: Language Politics And Cultural Correction in Ukraine. Cornell University Press, 2005. 256 pages. ISBN 9780801443497
- Laitin, David Dennis. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Cornell University Press, 1998. 417 pages. ISBN 0801484952
References
- ^ Russians in Ukraine
- Дністрянський М.С. Етнополітична географія України. Лівів Літопис, видавництво ЛНУ імені Івана Франка, 2006, page 342 isbn = 966-700760-4
- "Results / General results of the census / Linguistic composition of the population". 2001 Ukrainian Census.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Portrait of Yushchenko and Yanukovych electorates". Analitik (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - http://www.ji.lviv.ua/n35texts/masenko-mov_syt.htm
- "Byurkhovetskiy: Klichko - ne sornyak i ne buryan, i emu nuzhno vyrasti". Korrespondent (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "In Ukraine there are more Russian lanaguage speakers than Ukrainian ones". Evraziyskaya panorama (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2002/059/panorama01.php#13
- "Ukrainian society 1994-2005: sociological monitoring". http://dif.org.ua/ (in Ukrainian).
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Ukrainian society 1994-2005: sociological monitoring". http://dif.org.ua/ (in Ukrainian).
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Ukrainian society 1994-2005: sociligical monitoring". http://dif.org.ua/ (in Ukrainian).
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - Dominique Arel. "Demography and Politics in the First Post-Soviet Censuses: Mistrusted State, Contested Identities". Retrieved June 12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|datepublished=ignored (help) - See highlights in English
- Article 10 of the Constitution says: "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."
- ^ http://www.from-ua.com/politics/e62743796b72a.html
- http://www.podrobnosti.ua/society/2006/12/04/373924.html
- http://www.regnum.ru/news/749712.html
- Clipping service of Viktor Yuschenko. "Yuschenko guarantee equal rights for Russian and other minority languages - Decree project". Retrieved April 10.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|datepublished=ignored (help) - Lenta.ru. "Yuschenko appealed to Foreign Office to forget Russian language". Retrieved April 10.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|datepublished=ignored (help) - "Russian language in Odessa is acnowledged as the second official government language ..." Newsru.com (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - http://www.ura-inform.com/ru/print/politics/2006/07/17/resultati_oproso
- http://krytyka.kiev.ua/articles/s.3_11_2006.html
- http://www.niurr.gov.ua/ukr/dialog_1999/Gorodianenko.html
- Как соблюдается в Украине языковая Хартия?
- "Ukraine wages war on Russian language". Guardian.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "BYut proposed to ban the Russian language in Verhovna Rada". Lenta.Ru (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "BYut proposed to ban the Russian language in Verhovna Rada". Lenta.Ru (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Ukrainian diplomats are prohibited to speak in Russian at home". New Region (in Russian).
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Constitutional court forbad a socialist to report in foreign language". Korrespondent (in Russian).
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