ANALYSIS: Russia, Ukraine wage war of words (04/02/00)

ANALYSIS

Russia, Ukraine wage war of words

by Askold Krushelnycky
RFE/RL Newsline

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in an increasingly heated war of words about language. The Russian government has criticized Ukrainian policy aimed at making the use of the Ukrainian language mandatory for all state officials and increasing its use in schools. Russian organizations in both Russia and Ukraine have joined in that criticism.

Last week, hundreds of people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv demonstrated to demand the closure of all Russian-language publications. In Kyiv nationalists demanded that Russian be banned from official use and from television.

Meanwhile in Russia, protesters from Russian Orthodox organizations picketed the Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow. They demanded equal rights for the Ukrainian and Russian languages in Ukraine and what one of the organizations, the Christian Rebirth Union, called "equal rights for ethnic Russians on Ukrainian territory."

The upsurge in Russian concern follows Ukrainian proposals in the last three months to increase the use of Ukrainian in education and introduce Ukrainian-language tests for state employees and officials. Russian speakers are angry that they may not be eligible for some state jobs unless they learn Ukrainian. Some Russian community organizations in Ukraine have characterized the moves as an attack on Russian culture generally.

Last month, a Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry statement said the measures could infringe upon human rights and damage what it called "the cultural and linguistic environment." The statement added that such actions in so sensitive an area as language usually have "dire consequences."

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Oleg Mironov, for his part, said that Ukraine's language proposals grossly violate international norms, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ukraine is a signatory. He called the scale of language discrimination in Ukraine "massive and unprecedented."

In reply to the Russian charges, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Ihor Hrushko said that everyone in Ukraine has the right to choose his or her language of education. According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, that is not true, however, in Russia, where the country's large Ukrainian community has received very little official support for Ukrainian-language publications or activities.

In any case, Mr. Hrushko commented, Kyiv is sure that its proposals are in accordance with human rights norms. "We have already informed the Russian side that if this practice of groundlessly twisting the facts - that is, the real situation concerning languages in Ukraine - continues, then the Ukrainian side reserves the right to turn the matter over for independent assessment by the Council of Europe, the OSCE's (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) human rights experts or other respected international bodies," he told RFE/RL. "We are absolutely convinced that we are in the right on this issue, and we are ready for any international adjudication."

The language issue is an extremely emotional one throughout the former Soviet Union. Non-Russians in most former Soviet republics point out that they were forced to use Russian in central and local government administration, at the workplace and in educational establishments. (Notable exceptions were the three Transcaucasus republics, whose respective republican constitutions proclaimed that the mother tongue of the titular nationality was the state language.) The use of a non-Russian native language was often portrayed by Soviet authorities as evidence of nationalism, and thousands were executed or sent to labor camps for trying to defend their mother tongue.

Many Ukrainians, in particular, believe that during the Soviet era Russian was used as a weapon against the national identity of non-Russian peoples. Under Soviet rule Ukrainians found it much safer to use the Russian language. Besides, Russian was not only the language of opportunity in education and at the workplace, but also the predominant language of literature and entertainment, including television and films.

Within Ukraine there is a pronounced east-west divide in the use of language. Western Ukraine, which was not incorporated into the Soviet Union until after World War II, is predominantly Ukrainian-speaking. Eastern Ukraine was heavily Russified during both tsarist and Soviet times. The east also contains many of Ukraine's ethnic Russians, who make up about one-fifth of the country's 50 million inhabitants.

After Ukraine attained independence, Ukrainian became the state language and was introduced into more schools and institutes as the language of instruction. But one-third of the country's schools continue to use Russian, and much official business is still conducted in that language. Moreover, Russian-language publications and television programs abound.

Many Ukrainians say their language needs to be promoted as an essential ingredient of national identity. They feel little sympathy for Russians who are reluctant to learn the language of the country where they live.

Askold Krushelnycky is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague.

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