Four centuries of linguicide. Which language needs protection in Ukraine
Walking around Kyiv, you see a new sign with a black and red logo, point your camera at the QR code, and listen to how the Russians have been oppressing the Ukrainian language for 400 years. This is the Linguicide educational project, which aims to gently Ukrainize and educate. It demonstrates that despite all the prohibitions, the Ukrainian language has survived.
hromadske explores how the project was born, how Russia is fighting against the Ukrainian language today, and how to improve your Ukrainian as an adult.
Kyiv resident switches to Ukrainian with her son
The author of the project, Valentyna Merzhyievska, is an engineer by training, her specialty is internal combustion engines. It took her a long time to become interested in Ukrainian. At one point, Valentyna consciously changed her language of communication. She was curious to know how it happened that she, a Kyivan, came from a Russian-speaking family, even though her father spoke Ukrainian as a child. She, her husband, and her sister switched to their native language in 2005, after the Orange Revolution.
Valentyna's son was just growing up and learning to speak, so she wanted him to be Ukrainian-speaking. It was easier with the family, but with friends it was much more difficult: "They would make fun of me: ‘What are you doing?’ I got my satisfaction when, after the Revolution of Dignity, those friends started to switch to Ukrainian."
European approaches to memory
When the full-scale war broke out, Valentyna traveled to Europe for several months to study how memory and history are handled there. In particular, she worked at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow. Valentyna recalls the commemoration of the great uprising in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. This is a flash mob for the whole country. The symbol of the day is a yellow daffodil. One of the organizers of the uprising lost his friends there, but he survived and brought yellow daffodils to the memorial every year.
"It is both a moment of remembrance and unity for modern Poles who recognize each other by the yellow flowers. I was very inspired by this. We, Ukrainians, are now at a turning point — we are updating our understanding of history."
After Poland, Valentyna Merzhyievska also went to Berlin to study. There she saw a memorial in a smartphone. She liked the idea very much. In August, when she returned to Ukraine, she founded her NGO, Valency. Rethink, to create educational interactive projects.
"Linguicide" is the first of them, although she had experience with non-interactive projects. In 2011, together with her friends, Valentyna opened an alternative school in the capital. She compiled a math textbook for junior high school students.
Are Russian versions of products needed in Ukraine?
The term "linguicide" was coined by the Ukrainian researcher Yaroslav-Bohdan Rudnytsky. He "first used the term to describe any attempt by society or state institutions to limit or support the use of one language at the expense of another." In Munich in 1976, he published a work on language crime, Linguicide.
When developing the Linguicide project, Merzhyievska and her colleagues debated for a long time whether to make a Russian version in the app. They decided that it was necessary to convey the facts about linguicide as widely as possible. They also made an English version.
When asked whether it is worthwhile to keep Russian-language duplicates of information products, services, media, etc: "I would do active Ukrainization with children. All media, cartoons, and entertainment should be in Ukrainian. Children are more flexible, it's easier for them. It's not that the older ones won't understand, but they will objectively need more effort.
My Russian-speaking mother once said a very cool phrase: ‘A Ukrainian is someone whose children will speak Ukrainian.’ In our family, it eventually happened. My mother teaches at the university entirely in Ukrainian, but at home, in everyday life, she remains Russian-speaking. And my sister and I are already fluent in Ukrainian. It will be great if this gradual transition takes hold everywhere."
In her project, it was important for Valentyna not to directly say how bad the imperialists were for imposing Russian. She wanted the reader to draw their own conclusions.
"I sewed into the descriptions many historical facts that I think are important. For example, how the Moscow Patriarchate emerged: Boris Godunov took the Ecumenical Patriarch hostage and kept him in the basement for six months. We showed the violent actions of Russia that spanned 400 years. And it was also very important to emphasize that, despite all this oppression, the language has not disappeared."
As of the end of January, about 140 people had already installed the Linguicide app from Google Play and 130 from the App Store. The team is planning to develop and add a lesson plan to the website so that teachers can lead excursions. And they want to add the already drawn route to the app, not individual points of interest.
Is it necessary to protect the Ukrainian language today?
On July 16, 2019, the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" came into force. It envisages a gradual increase in the presence of the language in all areas, with only Ukrainian in the service sector, civil service, advertising, science, art, etc. More details about each stage of implementation are available on the website of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin.
As of January 16, the language ombudsman's secretariat has recorded more than 200 cases of linguistic violence against the Ukrainian language in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.
"Cases that testify to the displacement of the state language and the planned assimilation policy of the occupiers have been recorded in the areas of official communication and education at all levels, in the public, cultural and media spaces," Yuriy Zubko, head of the Commissioner's secretariat, added in response to our request.
Two criminal proceedings have been registered in Ukraine regarding the language crime, and these facts will be included in Ukraine's claims against Russia in international courts.
It will take 20 years — but without coercion
Valentyna Merzhyievska concludes the conversation by saying that she is in favor of gentle Ukrainization. She is happy about language quotas on radio and television, the ban on importing books from Russia, and believes that Ukrainianization should be supported by government measures.
"We can see the effectiveness of Russian bans over 400 years — the Ukrainian-speaking population has decreased by a third. So, if we take consistent steps in the opposite direction — to encourage Ukrainian, to narrow the space for Russian — this will also work." But she adds that people should not be forced at the household level. Ukrainians, says Valentyna, are very freedom-loving people. If you force or shame them, it causes strong resistance.
"When we have enough Ukrainian chanson, Ukrainian pop, and popular science content, that is, products of different levels, it will take another 20 years for a new generation to grow up in this environment. Ukrainization began actively with the Revolution of Dignity, so we will have to stay in this balance for another 10-15 years," says Valentyna.
She adds that it is much easier to switch to Ukrainian now than it was for her 17 years ago — there is more content, language clubs, and role models among famous people.
Where and how to improve your Ukrainian in Ukraine?
In recent years, many initiatives and courses have emerged in Ukraine to teach and develop spoken Ukrainian language skills.
For example, the “Yedyni” (‘United’) project of psychological and educational support promises 28 days of support during the transition to Ukrainian. The initiative has a team of 150 teachers and 500 volunteers, and operates in 25 cities and communities. Almost 60,000 people have turned to Yedyni to improve their Ukrainian.
Prometheus offers a course called "Ukrainian in 27 Lessons" that will help you master the language at the A2 level (according to the CEFR). According to Yana Sabliash, the course instructor and co-author of the E-Language courses, the Ukrainian in 27 Lessons (beginner level) and the continuation of the 22 Steps to Language Confidence (intermediate level) courses have up to 9,000 students each, and usually only half of them complete them. The training is not designed to improve, but to learn Ukrainian as a second language from scratch. The audience is 25+ — both foreigners and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
Yana Sabliash also recommends the Solovei classroom-based language courses, which combine language teaching with Ukrainian literature and history.
Educational Era, an online education studio, has launched the MovyTy project, which consists of five modules. Yaryna Bila, Head of Communications at EdEra, told us that in less than three months, almost 9,000 students have joined the project, most of whom are residents of the northeastern and southern regions of Ukraine.
The website of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language also contains information about free courses, conversation clubs, and web resources to learn or improve Ukrainian.