FOR THE RECORD

Scholars protest Russification

Following is the text of the March 3 "Protest Against Russification of Ukraine" issued by the presidium of the World Scholarly Council of the Ukrainian World Congress.

The draft legislation "For the Adoption of the Russian Language in Ukraine," proposed by National Deputy V. Myronenko during the "Year of Ukraine in Russia," and this year's draft - the "Year of Russia in Ukraine" - by Deputy Leonid Hrach that proposes "changes to Article 38 of the Constitution of Ukraine," which was supported by 164 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, fill us with anxiety. It may appear that the concern is merely about the rights of the Russian minority or of the "Russian-speaking population" in Ukraine, but in reality, the proposal represents an attempt at legitimizing the political and economic aims of transforming Ukraine into a Russian province.

The drafts propose legalization of the Russian language "in all spheres of social life," particularly in the local organs of self-administration," something which is contrary to the Constitution, albeit, the "higher administrative organs" would be graciously permitted to issue legislative acts in the official state language. The draft legislation claims that these steps would secure "Ukrainian national unity" and promote "strengthening and growth of Ukrainian sovereignty." By what means this would be accomplished is not explained, but it is easy to imagine that these kinds of laws would lead to the decline of national consciousness of the Ukrainian people.

Informed Ukrainians immediately sensed the danger of such drafts and sounded the alarm. Ukrainian intellectuals turned to President Leonid Kuchma, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn, and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych with an open letter expressing their indignation at the proposed legislation. The letter states, "The language situation in the country is a clear evidence of inequality precisely of the Ukrainian and not the Russian language: information networks, book publishing, movies and television markets are all spheres dominated by the language of the 'older brother.'"

The presidium of the World Scholarly Council of the Ukrainian World Congress and the presidents of other scholarly institutions outside Ukraine add their voices to this appeal and express their support of all measures aimed at strengthening the position of the Ukrainian language in education, science, culture and administration on all territories of the Ukrainian state. We call on all informed Ukrainian communities to stand up in defense of the Ukrainian language and sovereignty before the menace of total Russification of Ukraine.

Prof. Lubomyr Wynar, Ph.D.
President, World Scholarly Council, and President, Ukrainian Historical Association

Prof. Assya Humesky, Ph.D.
Vice-President, World Scholarly Council, and President, Ukrainian American Association of University Professors

Rev. Prof. Oleh Kravchenko, Ph.D.
Vice-President, World Scholarly Council, and President, Ukrainian Free Academy of Science in Canada

Prof. Arkadii Zhukovskyi, Ph.D.
Vice-President, World Scholarly Council, and President, Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe

Prof. Osyp Martyniuk, Ph.D.
Secretary, World Scholarly Council

Prof. Dmytro Shtohryn, Ph.D.
Chairperson, Ukrainian Research Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 16, 2003, No. 11, Vol. LXXI

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