Ukrainization

This article is about the ethnic policy of the governments. For localization into Ukrainian language and locale, see Ukrainization (computers).

Ukrainization (or Ukrainianization), in general, is the state policy to increase the prominence and facilitate the development of the Ukrainian language, culture and, sometimes, representation of Ukrainian people within the state institutions and in public life, mostly, but not exclusively, within Ukraine. The term is usually applied to characterize the policies in general, or some aspects of them, during several periods of the twentieth century history of Ukraine.

Ukrainization is often cited as a response and the means to address the consequences of the previous assimilationist policies aimed to suppress or even eradicate the Ukrainian language and culture from most spheres of public life, most frequently Russification (see also Ems Ukaz), but also Polonization and Rumanization in some Western Ukrainian regions.

1917-1923: Times after the Russian Revolution

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was broken up and the Ukrainians, that developed a renewed sense of national identity, intensified their struggle for an independent Ukrainian state. In the chaos of the Great War and revolutionary changes, a nascent Ukrainian state emerged but, initially, the state's very survival was not ensured. As the Central Rada, the governing body, was trying to assert the control over Ukraine amid the foreign powers and internal struggle, only a limited cultural development could take place. However, for the first time in the modern history, Ukraine had a government of its own and the Ukrainian language gained usage in much of the state affairs.

As the Rada was eventually overthrown in a German-backed coup (April 29, 1918), the rule of Hetmanate led by Pavlo Skoropadsky was established. While the stability of the government was only relative and Skoropadsky himself, as a former officer of the tsarist army, spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian, the Hetmanate managed to start an impressive Ukrainian cultural and education program, printed millions of Ukrainian-language textbooks, established many Ukrainian schools, two universities, and a Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The latter established a Committee on Orthography and Terminology, which initiated a scholarly and methodological research program into Ukrainian terminology.

The Hetmanate's rule ended with the German evacuation. However, the Directorate government of Symon Petlura had to face a new wave of chaos as Ukraine was invaded by Bolshevik and Polish troops, as well as ravaged by the armed bands, some lacking any political ideology.

1923-1931: Early years of Soviet Ukraine

The 1921 Soviet recruitment to the Military Education poster with the Ukrainization theme. The text reads: "Son! Enrol in the school of Red commanders, and the defence of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured." The poster uses traditional Ukrainian imagery with Ukrainian-language text to reach a wider appeal. The School of Red Commanders in Kharkiv was organized to promote the careers of the Ukrainian national cadre in the army.

As the Bolshevik rule took hold in Ukraine, the early Soviet government had its own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about the political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire. Besides, the reversal of the assimilationist policies in the Russian Empire was to help to improve the image of the Soviet government and boost its popularity among the common people.

Until the early-1930s, the Ukrainian culture enjoyed a widespread revival due to Bolshevik concessions known as the policy of Korenization ("indigenization"). In these years an impressive Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. In such conditions, the Ukrainian national idea initially continued to develop and even spread to a large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet republic.

The All-Ukrainian Sovnarkom's decree "On implementation of the Ukrainization of the educational and cultural institutions" (July 27, 1923) is considered to be an onset of the Ukrainization. The soon followed (August 1) decree "On implementation of the equal rights of the languages and facilitation of the Ukrainian language" mandated the implementation of Ukrainian language to all levels of the state governments. Initially, the program was met with resistance of some Ukrainian Communists, largely due to the fact that non-Ukrainians prevailed in the party at the time. The resistance was finally overcome by 1925 changes in the party leadership under the pressure of the Ukrainian representatives in the party. In April 1925 the party Central Committee adopted the resolution on Ukrainization proclaiming its aim as the "solidifying the union of the peasantry with the working class" and boosting the overall support of the Soviet system among the Ukrainians. The joint resolution aimed at "complete Ukrainization of Soviet apparatus" as well as the party and trade unions was adopted on April 30, 1925. The Ukrainian Department of Education was charged to oversee the implementation of Ukrainization policies. Thus, Mykola Skrypnyk, the head of the department for the years to come, became a main leader of the Ukrainization program.

The rapidly developed Ukrainian-language based education system dramatically raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural population. By 1929 over 97% of the high school students in the republic were obtaining their education in Ukrainian and illiteracy dropped from 47% (1926) to 8% in 1934.

Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized—in both population and in education. Between 1923 and 1933 the Ukrainian population of Kharkiv, at the time the capital of Soviet Ukraine, increased from 38% to 50%. Similar increases occurred in other cities, from 27.1% to 42,1% in Kiev, from 16% to 48% in Dnipropetrovsk, from 16% to 48% in Odessa, from 7% to 31% in Luhansk.

Similarly expansive was an increase in Ukrainian language publishing and overall eruption of Ukrainian cultural life. As of 1931 out of 88 theatres in Ukraine, 66 were Ukrainian, 12 were Jewish (Yiddish) and 9 were Russian. The number of Ukrainian newspapers, which almost did not exist in 1922 have reached 373 out of 426, while only 3 all-republican large newspapers remained Russian. Of 118 magaziens 89 were Ukrainian. Ukrainization of book-publishing reached 83%.

Most importantly, Ukrainization was thoroughly implemented through the government apparatus, Communist Party of Ukraine membership and, gradually, the party leadership as well, as the recruitment of indigenous cadre was implemented as part of the korenization policies. At the same time, the usage of Ukrainian was continuously encouraged in the workplace and in the government affairs. While initially, the party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking, by the end of 1920s ethnic Ukrainians composed over one half of the membership in the Ukrainian communist party, the number strengthened by accession of Borotbists, a formerly indigenously Ukrainian "independentist" and non-Bolshevik communist party.

Years	Party members and candidates to membership	Ukrainians	Russians	Others (mostly Jews)
1922	54818	23,3%	53,6%	23,3%
1924	57016	33,3%	45,1%	14,0%
1925	101852	36,9%	43,4%	19,7%
1927	168087	51,9%	30,0%	18,1%
1930	270698	52,9%	29,3%	17,8%
1933	468793	60,0%	23,0%	17,0%

In the all-Ukrainian Ispolkom, central executive branch, as well as in the oblast level governments, the number of Ukrainians reached 50.3% by 1934 while in raion ispolkoms the number reached 68.8. On the city and village levels, the representation of Ukrainians in the local government bodies reached 56.1 and 86.1, respectively. As for other governmental agencies, the Ukrainization policies increased the Ukrainian representation as follows: officers of all-republican People's Commissariat (ministries) - 70-90%, oblast executive brunches - 50%, raion - 64%, Judiciary - 62%, Militsiya (law enforcement) - 58%.

The attempted Ukrainization of the armed forces, Red Army formations serving in Ukraine and abroad, was less successful although the moderate progress was reached. The Schools of Red Commanders (Shkola Chervonyh Starshyn) was organized in Kharkiv to promote the careers of the Ukrainian national cadre in the army (see picture). The Ukrainian newspaper of the Ukrainian Military District "Chervona Armiya" was published until mid-1930s. The efforts were made to introduce and expand the Ukrainian terminology and communication in the Ukrainian Red Army units. The policies even reached the army units served by Ukrainians in other Soviet regions. For instance the Soviet Pacific Fleet included a Ukrainian department overseen by Semyon Rudniev.

At the same time, despite the ongoing Soviet-wide anti-religious campaign, two Ukrainian national Orthodox churches were created, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church (See History of Christianity in Ukraine). The Bolshevik government initially saw the national churches as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church always viewed with the great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of the defunct Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.

The Ukrainization even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR, particularly the areas by the Don and Kuban rivers, where mixed population showed strong Ukrainian influences in the local dialect. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications were started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five administrative districts in southern Russia.

Early-1930s to mid-1980s

Starting from the early 1930s, the Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed. "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian newspapers, publications, and schools were switched to Russian. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were purged, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party.

In the following fifty years the Soviet policies towards the Ukrainian language mostly varied between quiet discouragement and suppression to persecution and cultural purges with the notable exception for the decade of Shelest's leadership in the Soviet Ukraine (1963-1972).

Mid-1960s were characterized by moderate Ukrainization efforts in the governmental affairs as well as the resurgence of the usage of Ukrainian in education, publishing and culture. Eventually, All effects of Ukrainization were undone yet again and Ukraine gradually became russified to a significant degree. These policies softened somewhat only in the mid-to-late 1980s and were completely reversed again in newly-independent Ukraine in the 1990s.

Post-1991: Independent Ukraine

On 28th of October 1989, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR changed the Constitution and adopted the Law on Languages. The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language, while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed the constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian. Other languages might be used along with Ukrainian in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities. Citizens should have the guaranteed right to use their native or any other languages. A citizen was entitled to address various institutions and organisations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable for the parties. After the Ukrainian accession of independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union the law, with some minor amendments, preserved its validity in the independent Ukrainian state.

Adopted in 1996, the new Constitution of Ukraine confirmed the official state status of the Ukrainian language, and guaranteed the free development, use, and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine.

The government implemented policies to broaden the use of Ukrainian and mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that was only partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. .

At the same time the transition's character was smooth and gradual, especially compared to the similar processes in other post-Soviet states. The share of secondary school students obtaining education in Ukrainian increased over the first decade from 47.9% to 67%, which roughly corresponds to the share of native Ukrainian speakers - 67,5%. However, the schools continued to be transferred to the Ukrainian language of instruction well past the end-1990 when their share reached the share of Ukrainophone population and the process continues to this day. At the end of the 1990s, about 50% of professional school students, 62% of college students and of 67% university students (cf. 7% in 1991) studied in Ukrainian. In some cases, the abrupt changing of the language of instruction in institutions of secondary and higher education, led to the charges of assimilation, raised mostly by the Russian-speaking population. However, the transition mostly lacked the controversies that surrounded the de-Russification in several of the other former Soviet Republics.

In two presidential elections, in 1994 and 2004, the political talk over languages in Ukraine was an important election issue. In 1994 the main opposition candidate, Leonid Kuchma, in an attempt to widen his political appeal, expressed his support for the idea of Russian becoming the second state language, as well as promised to improve his knowledge of Ukrainian language. In addition to the stagnating economy, the language issue has likely contributed to Kuchma's victory in the election but while his knowledge of Ukrainian has noticeably improved, Kuchma did not follow on his pledge to make Russian a state language in 10 years of his presidency. In 2004 an election promise by Viktor Yanukovych to adopt Russian as the second official language might have also increased the turnout of his base, but it was rebutted during the campaign by his opponent (Viktor Yushchenko), who pointed out that Yanukovych could have already taken steps towards this change while he was a Prime Minister of Ukraine should this have really been his priority. Yanukovych eventually lost that presidential election, but is now leading the biggest faction in the Ukrainian parliament.

According to the recently-enacted (2005) laws on civil and administrative procedure, all legal and court proceedings in Ukraine are to be conducted in Ukrainian. This does not restrict, however, using other languages as the law guarantees interpretation service for any language desired by a citizen, defendant or a witness. Nonetheless, on September 6, 2005, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticised the measure issuing a statement that the change infringes on the rights of the Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens. In response, the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Ohryzko expressed his astonishment at the Russian Foreign Ministry's commentary. In this connection he cited Russian law provisions, which state that the Russian language is used Russia-wide by every body of state authority, local self-government, as well as public organisations. As Mr. Ohryzko stressed, after all, this matter is solely Ukraine's own affair.

The Ukrainization policies of the Ukrainian government have provoked a backlash in Russian-speaking areas. In 2006, city councils in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrivsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and the Crimea have declared that Russian is a legal language in their respective areas. However, the central Government is threatening legal action to prevent this.[4], [5], [6]

Further reading

• Volodymyr Kubiyovych; Zenon Kuzelia, Енциклопедія українознавства (Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies), 3-volumes, Kiev, 1994, ISBN 5-7702-0554-7
• Закон про мови (Law on languages), 1989 (in Ukrainian), English translation.
• Constitution of Ukraine.
• Ukrainian language - the third official? - Ukrayinska Pravda, 28 november 2005