After centuries of oppression and struggle, Ukraine was finally able to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. As part of their victory, they instated Ukrainian as their official language, requiring it to the tongue of the government and education. This was met with some controversy because many people in the country primarily spoke Russian and despite efforts to appease both parties, an uneasiness exists between the two in current affairs. But the Ukrainian language issue is nothing new and has its roots in the centuries of oppression and erasure done by its eastern neighbor.
The Ukrainian nation has been partitioned between multiple regional powers since the 14th century, particularly between Poland, Russia, and Austria. While the Polish attitude towards their neighbor has been problematic, they have always acknowledged them as a separate ethnic group with their own culture, language, tradition, and foods.
The Russians, however, insisted Ukrainians were “Little Russians” who simply spoke a dialect of their language. They fantasized their western neighbor as a purer, more primitive that was not yet corrupted by technology.
This fetishization did have a practical underlining reason, however: Ukraine is famous for having one of Europe’s most fertile soil, earning the nickname “Europe’s breadbasket.”
Of course, Ukraine has been a distinct ethnic group and language with their own language and culture since the end of the Middle Ages. The two languages share only about 62% of their lexicon, follow different Cyrillic alphabets, and possess a differing number of cases (Ukrainian has seven while Russian has six.) The two groups also differ religion wise, with Ukraine historically being Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox while Russian Orthodox has been the chosen religion of the Russian government.
To further their stronghold in the area, Moscow forced Russian to be the predominant language of education and literature in the territory. When Tsar Alexander I passed the first education reforms and permitted some non-Russian language to be used in schools, he refused to grant that right to Ukrainian because he deemed it a Russian dialect. But the true reason for his refusal was that allowing these “little Russians” to conduct classes in their language could fuel nationalism and calls for autonomy so the government made sure to hold this decree until 1917. Any ethnic Ukrainian who had any political, intellectual, or economic ambitions was forced to be fluent in Russian.
Because the nation has been under the thumb of her neighbors for much of her history, Ukrainian was predominantly spoken in the countryside. Ethnic Ukrainians in the urban areas spoke Russian, Polish, and Yiddish, causing their language to earn the reputation of a peasant language. In 1917, only about one-fifth of the population of Kiev spoke Ukrainian.
These provisions, however, caused widespread illiteracy and poverty for most of the population. Peasants who barely understood the Russian language made little progress in school and have been described by teachers as quickly forgetting the material once they left. Many students grew bored and resorted to acting out rather than focusing on their studies.
Furthermore, the government also banned Ukrainian books and periodicals, prohibited the language from being used in theaters, and outlawed many nationalist organizations in hopes of squashing calls for independence.
Indeed, the road to 1991 was a long one, with the Ukrainian language often being at the heart of the conflict. The Bolsheviks continued the same policy as their Imperial Russian counterparts. Despite aiming to dismantle Tsarist autocracy and transform the state into the USSR, most Red leaders still were educated under the old system and held the same discriminatory attitudes towards minorities. When the Red Army gained control of Ukraine, for example, they ordered to shoot anyone speaking Ukrainian in Kiev. This conflict lasted well into the 21st century with the Ukrainian Civil War and there is no end in sight.
Sources:
Applebaum, Anne. Red famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. New York: Doubleday, 2017.
The Slavic Historian 