Russian language in Ukraine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Russian language in Ukraine (Russian: Русский язык в Украине) is the most common first language in Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Kiev, the country's capital, and the most spread second language in the whole country.

1 Distribution
- 1.1 2001 Census
2 Polls
3 Russian language in Ukrainian politics
4 Russian language and Ukrainian identity
5 Bibliography
6 References

[edit] Distribution

[edit] 2001 Census

Proportion of people with Russian as their native language according to 2001 census (in regions)

Support for Russian language as official for all the state (in regions, according to 2005 survey by National Istitute of Stratigic Research)

According to official data of 2001 Ukrainian census Russian language is native for over 14,273,000 Ukrainian citizens (29.3 % of total population).^[1] Ethnic Russians form 56 % of all Russian-speaking population, while the rest of Russophones are people of other ethnic background: 5,545,000 Ukrainians, 172,000 Belarusians, 86,000 Jews, 81,000 Greeks, 62,000 Bulgarians, 46,000 Moldavians, 43,000 Tartars, 43,000 Armenians, 22,000 Poles, 21,000 Germans, 15,000 Crimean Tartars.

Therefore, Russian-speaking population of Ukraine form the largest linguistic community in Europe that does not have official status for its language. Furthermore, the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine constitutes the largest Russophone community outside the Russian Federation.

[edit] Polls

According to public opinion polls Russian language is used far more then it was claimed by official census. A survey by Kiev International Sociology Institution (2004) showed that Russian language is used at home by 43—46 % of population (in other words the same or slightly larger proportion then Ukrainian-speaking population). According to this survey the Russophones form the majority of population in all Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine:^[2]

Autonomous Republic of Crimea — 97 % of population
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — 72 %
Donetsk Oblast — 93 %
Zaporizhia Oblast — 81 %
Luhansk Oblast — 89 %
Mykolaiv Oblast — 66 %
Odessa Oblast — 85 %
Kharkiv Oblast — 74 %

Russian language dominates in informal communication in capital of Ukraine, Kiev.^[3] It is also used by a sizeable linguistic minority (4-5 % of total population) in Central and Western Ukraine.^[4]

**Native language** (according to annual surveys by Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences)^[5]
	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Russian language	34,7	37,8	36,1	35,1	36,5	36,1	35,1	38,1	34,5	38,1	35,7	34,1

**Spoken language (at home)** (according to annual surveys by Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences) ^[5]
	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Mainly Russian	32,4	32,8	33,1	34,5	33,4	33,6	36,0	36,7	33,2	36,0	34,3	36,4
Both Russian and Ukrainian	29,4	34,5	29,6	26,8	28,4	29,0	24,8	25,8	28,0	25,2	26,3	21,6

[edit] Russian language in Ukrainian politics

Officially, the Russian language has no status in Ukraine. The controversy of making it one has been continuing ever since Ukraine became indepedent in 1991. In all of the Ukrainian elections many politicians, such as Leonid Kuchma, used their promise of making Russian a second state langauge to win support. The current Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych has continued this practice. The controversy is seen as a deliberate policy of Ukrainization. For example, the amount of Russian teaching schools has been systematically reduced since 1991. The reduction of Russian television airing and the recent making of Russian programmes on Ukrainian channels to be dubbed instead of just subtitles also added to the controversy.

In 2006 the Kharkiv Oblast Rada declared Russian to be official on local level. Following that almost all southern and eastern regions followed suit. Despite the appeal of President Victor Yushchenko, only a few courts have cancelled these decisions.^[6]

[edit] Russian language and Ukrainian identity

Over the course of 20th century, if not during the whole period of Imperial Russian rule in Ukraine the ever changing policies of Ukrainization and Russification has created a society that lives in south-western Ukraine that is thought to be neither wholly Russian nor Ukrainian.

Potentially this could cause Ukraine serious problems, and the official reasoning that the people who reject Russian language to become official is that such a move would force Ukraine to slowly gravitate back to Russia, or, on a regional local level, threaten its territorial integrity at a time of crisis.

However, some like the French researcher Dominique Areal, holds a different opinion on the matter. Despite the ethnical mixing that took place ever since the land was settled in the 19th century by colonisers from other regions of the Empire, the people there do not share the same Ukrainian mentality as those in the central and the in the west, and thus many feel alienated by Kiev favouring the Western Ukrainian one. Areal thinks that if Russian was to be raised as a state language, this alienation would promptly end, and the people would cease to feel like second-class citizens and realise that they hold equal importance in Ukrainian politics as those from the central and western regions. ^[7]

[edit] Bibliography

Русские говоры Сумской области. Сумы, 1998. — 160 с ISBN 966-7413-01-2
Русские говоры на Украине. Киев: Наукова думка, 1982. — 231 с.
Степанов, Є. М.: Російське мовлення Одеси: Монографія. За редакцією д-ра філол. наук, проф. Ю. О. Карпенка, Одеський національний університет ім. І. І. Мечнікова. Одеса: Астропринт, 2004. — 494 с.
Фомин А. И. Языковой вопрос в Украине: идеология, право, политика. Монография. Второе издание, дополненное. — Киев: Журнал «Радуга». — 264 с ISBN 966-8325-65-6
Bilaniuk, Laada. Contested Tongues: Language Politics And Cultural Correction in Ukraine. Cornell University Press, 2005. 256 pages. ISBN 9780801443497
Laitin, David Dennis. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Cornell University Press, 1998. 417 pages. ISBN 0801484952