ROUGH DRAFT: Language and Kuchma's backyard (08/13/00)

ROUGH DRAFT

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

Language and Kuchma's backyard

Let's get one thing clear from the outset: Russian allegations that Ukraine discriminates against its Russian minority and does not uphold language and cultural rights clauses as agreed upon in their friendship treaty do not have a toehold in the truth. It is absurd. The Russian language in Ukraine is thriving.

You hear it in the capital city and in the eastern regions - almost exclusively. In the other regions of Ukraine, it is regularly spoken. And yes, by God, you hear it on the streets of Lviv, and often - even now. Newsstands there continue to stock Russian-language literature, and the airwaves are still filled with the sounds of Russian pop music.

Most everyone in Ukraine knows a good amount of Russian. Fewer know Ukrainian, thanks to a well-thought-through and effective Russification process developed through the centuries by the tsarist regime and then the Soviets. It is a process that in some ways is continuing today in the form of subtle policies, programs and control over the mass media, which is still too often influenced if not controlled by Moscow. There are some examples:

Example No. 1: One of those most responsible for sensationalizing the story surrounding the acts of violence that occurred after the death of Ukrainian composer Ihor Bilozir and the subsequent decision of the Lviv governments for a limited ban on the Russian language in the city is a widely respected Ukrainian reporter, Natalia Kondratiuk, who works for the government-controlled Moscow television station ORT. As is now known, the violence that occurred in Lviv was never more than individual acts of hooliganism by rowdy pseudo-radicals of the type found in most major cities of Europe.

But Ms. Kondratiuk reported otherwise. She filed her pieces from Kyiv, using tight shots of the violence filmed by local Lviv television and information supplied by unidentified sources, which she then edited to give the impression of citywide rioting. Conventional wisdom among the Kyiv press corps is that ORT pays its reporters incentives to come up with "interesting stories" on suggested topics.

Example No. 2: Ukrainian journalist Andrii Myseliuk, writing in the newspaper Den (Day), explained that, during an appearance he made on the popular Moscow talk show "Press Club" to discuss the state of the Russian-language in Ukraine and the Baltic countries, he was amazed at how the show was staged to give Russians a decidedly negative view of what is occurring in the lands once considered theirs.

He said that a panel of Russian politicians and commentators was invited to respond to individual statements made by him and a Latvian guest. The two non-Russians were bombarded with accusations and assertions with little chance to respond every time they offered a comment, which forced Mr. Myseliuk to conclude in his article that: "You can say that a pro-Ukrainian stance for Russian political elites is not an acceptable principle."

He added that, "Unfortunately, we could not convince our guests that there is not a total ban on the Russian language in Lviv or that citizenship requirements in Latvia have been eased."

Example No. 3: In a more subtle manner, the Russian movie business this summer began an attack of a different sort on the Ukrainian language. A hugely popular film recently released in Russia tells the story of Russian brothers who join the Russian mafia and become hit men. They travel to Chicago, where they meet members of the Ukrainian mafia, who speak Ukrainian, as it turns out. As war breaks out between the two rival gangs, the brothers are instructed to kill the Ukrainian speakers.

Interestingly, the Ukrainian gangsters hang out at a club called Lviv. Coincidentally or not, there actually is a Ukrainian bar in Chicago with the very similar name of Lev (Lion).

And there is yet another example of a more overt method used by Moscow to assure the standing of the Russian language in its "near abroad." A 1995 Russian law gives Russian publishers a break on the standard 20 percent value-added tax (VAT) and on levies for books marked for export, which has led to a huge increase in cheap Russian publications in Ukraine and the near death of the Ukrainian publishing industry.

Although one can fault Russia for the various methods it has used to keep Russian the predominant language in the post-Soviet space of Eastern Europe, the blame for the inability of the Ukrainian language to deeply re-root itself on its own turf lies squarely with the Ukrainian government and its lack of a coordinated policy and program.

While President Leonid Kuchma did the right thing in blasting Moscow on July 27 (see The Weekly, August 6) for failing to look into its own backyard before attacking Ukraine on the very dubious charges of ignoring the language rights of the Russian minority, he failed to assert that the Ukrainian language should have primacy over all others in Ukraine. Mr. Kuchma, the head of state - and presumably, leader of the Ukrainian nation as well - barely could force himself to say that in Ukraine there is a living, breathing, native language.

He had no difficulty explaining that he considers all languages to be on par. He has used that old line many times while explaining to the world that Ukraine is an egalitarian state. But realizing that in this instance he had to defend the Ukrainian language as well, he forced himself to mutter, "There is, however, only one official language in Ukraine." That was followed by a less than ringing endorsement for the primacy of the language: "On the other hand, let's not forget that we are Ukrainians."

Yes, indeed. In fact, President Kuchma needs to take a closer look at his own retinue, where the Ukrainian language still finds itself critically in need of life support.

While Mr. Kuchma, the person, should be complimented for teaching himself the Ukrainian language (until 1994 his knowledge of Ukrainian was limited), he deserves condemnation for the continued poor state of the Ukrainian language and, specifically, for not developing a far-reaching public program to do for Ukrainians what he has done for himself.

What he has accomplished smacks of superficiality - of proclamations made rather than deeds done. And the little that has happened is more the result of steps taken recently by his decidedly more nationally conscious prime minister, Viktor Yuschenko, who has begun to enforce government decrees on the use of Ukrainian in government meetings and in all official communications.

Yes, during President Kuchma's tenure the number of Ukrainian-language schools in the country has risen dramatically. The textbooks they use, however, are often Russian, because there are too few Ukrainian ones published today. And the teachers often revert to Russian anyway because they lack Ukrainian language skills. Unfortunately no one, as yet, has developed a program to improve their knowledge, although the Cabinet of Ministers is considering a comprehensive program to develop those skills for all government workers.

Mr. Kuchma also has failed to address the remarkable decline of the Ukrainian book publishing industry and has made scant effort to promote Ukrainian-language media. The Ukrainian-language book market today is almost non-existent. Although some may put the blame on lack of demand, the fact is that Russian book publishers can publish a book for much less than their Ukrainian counterparts.

As for the print and broadcast media in Ukraine, while Ivan Drach, the chairman of the State Committee on Information Policy, TV and Radio Broadcasting, stated recently that 49.7 percent of periodicals are published in Russian, that figure is misleading. The national print media in Kyiv - with the newspaper Den the only real exception - publishes in Russian. Most Ukrainian-language newspapers are found in western Ukraine and in smaller towns and villages, and are barely noticed, much less influential. As for the print media, it is a mixed bag of both languages, split about even.

President Kuchma could quickly resolve these problems if he had the will, and if the use of the Ukrainian language had a place higher on his political agenda. The president can criticize the condition of the Ukrainian minority in Russia, the lack of books, newspapers and adequate schools, but this seems to be rather dishonest on his part when his own backyard is in such poor shape.

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