Does Ukrainian bilingualism mean Russification?

• Authors: Siniša Kuko
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In post-Soviet states like Ukraine, centuries-old Russian language influence persists as one of the most decisive identity and socio-political factor. In contemporary Ukraine there still exist lingual dualism and diffused cultural and political identity. Nonetheless, the stronger self-consciousness of the Russian speaking minority than that of Ukrainian speaking people, and more or less direct political, diplomatic, military, cultural, historical, economic and financial influence of a Russian state lead toward a new deprivation of the Ukrainian language, if not the Russian language domination under the label of lingual equality, regardless of the fact that Ukraine is a formally independent, internationally undoubtedly recognised and a relatively big state. Thereby, “language matters” in Ukraine is not only a cultural or linguistic issue. With no immediate Euro-Atlantic perspective for Kyiv, and deficient or failed democratic and economic transformation and stabilisation, bilingual reality with de facto dominance of the Russian language becomes important for the geo-cultural orientation of the whole Ukrainian society, and for the actual international position of the Ukrainian state with possible impact on its national security and integrity.

Keywords

EN

contemporary bilingual Ukraine Ukrainian language; Russian language; post-communist country; двуязычнaя современнaя Украинa украинский язык; русский язык посткоммунистическaя странa

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego
• Journal: Miscellanea Posttotalitariana Wratislaviensia
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 1: Między pamięcią a zapomnieniem. Trauma postkomunistyczna
• Pages: 157-170

Contributors

author

Siniša Kuko

• Fakultet političkih znanosti Ѕveučilišta u Zagrebu (Republika Hrvatska)