Nation Building and Language: A Case of Ukraine

Nation building one of the most discussed issues in Post-Soviet geography in recent years. Each state was obliged to provide and implement separate policies in nation-building because the demographic and cultural structures of these countries were quite different. In this sense, language is considered the efficient starting point almost in every single state. Most of the post-Soviet states initiated language-related laws after the independence to promote national identity and unity. However, reducing Russian dominance in language and culture remained a compelling matter from the beginning to the present.

One of this countries-Ukraine- sets a complicated example on the matter of language. From the declaration of independence, Ukraine made remarkable efforts to accelerate the nation-building process. Shared cultural and ethnic features with Russia caused attaching primary importance to the Ukrainian language and language served as a critical divergence point.

Roots of the current problems of language policies in Ukraine should be inquired about in Tsarist Empire and perceived as a whole with the policies in the Soviet Union. Until the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian language was a victim of Pan-Slavic policies and was perceived as a “Little Russian”. Because of the imperialistic approach and concerns over territorial integrity, Tsarist officials initiated policies to assimilate linguistic minorities.

As a result of the insurrection and cultural awakening, Russian governmental officers started to implement policies to prevent the development of the Ukrainian language. The most striking example of these policies was the 1863 Valuev Circular. Valuev Circular was originally a letter sent by Minister of Internal Affairs Petr Valuev to Minister of Education Alexandr Golovnin. In his letter, Valuev described the Ukrainian language as a spoiled dialect of the Russian language and stated it was created by “Little Russians". Despite the perception that the Ukrainian language is nothing but the dialect of Russian, Valuev Circular was prohibiting the use of Ukrainian temporarily in all published materials including religious books until the actual legislative order – Ems Decree in 1876.

Ems Decree proposed additional measures against the use of Ukrainian in public life and provide a legitimate basis for the previous Valuev Circular, issued by Tsar Alexander II. After that date, only letters, and publication of historical documents were allowed in Ukrainian.

Valuev Circular and Ems Decree regulated Ukrainian cultural life until the October Revolution. After the collapse of the Tsarist Empire, the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian identity found an opportunity to improve themselves via education for a brief period due to Leninist ideology. However, after this short period, the Ukrainian language was ignored and overshadowed for the sake of creating a “Soviet nation” with a “common language” like every other nation in the Soviet Union. Until the 1989 language law and collapsing of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian language existed with a heavy burden on itself.  

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, one of the major problems in the Ukrainian nation-building process was establishing a separate Ukrainian identity via language. Inherited problems from both the Tsarist period and the Soviet Union, aggravated implementation of language policies and undermined the concept of Ukrainian identity. From the 1989 Language Law to the present, Ukraine is still managing to balance language politics in political and social spheres. According to the 1989 Law Ukrainian is the state language in Ukraine, but, Russian maintained the privileged position in 1989 Law. As the first president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk supported the reawakening of Ukrainian national identity. However, during his period there were no radical efforts on language issues.

Second president Leonid Kuchma on the other hand brought back the language issues to the agenda. Despite the fact that Kuchma was from Eastern Ukraine, where the majority of the population speaks in Russian and he learned Ukrainian during his presidential campaign he adopted significant language-related laws. One of these laws-1994 Law on Television and Broadcasting stipulated that all TV/radio stations shall broadcast in the national language.

1996 Constitution of Ukraine also embraced language issues once again. Article 6 of the Constitution declared: “The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The Constitution guarantees free development, use, and protection of the Russian and other languages of national minorities in Ukraine. According to this law, the Russian language has no special status other than the language of national minorities. The legal emphasis on the differences between Ukrainian as an official language and other minority languages proceeded with the 1997 Law on Publishing, 2001 Law on Citizenship of Ukraine, and 2002 Law on Judicial System.  As can be seen, the Kuchma period was relatively productive in pursuance to promote the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life.

After the second term of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine witnessed a highly contentious presidential race in 2004. The presidential campaigns of two candidates Victor Yuschenko and Victor Yanukovych and following the Orange Revolution brought up a different aspect of language politics in Ukraine. The country is roughly divided into east and south which represent the Russian-speaking population, and the west and center represent the Ukrainian population.

After massive electoral fraud and Orange Revolution, Yuschenko was elected as the president of Ukraine. However, language policies were a low priority for Yuschenko. So, in an interview, he revealed his perception with the following words: Ukraine, please keep in mind that more than half of the people would not support this idea. In his period two language-related laws were adopted: the 2005 Code of Administrative Proceedings of Ukraine, which has changed with the 2012 Language law, and the 2006 Law on Television and Broadcasting.

2006 Law on Television had interesting consequences for Ukraine since the law stipulated the following: In the event that the original language (or that of dubbing) of a film and/or other program is not Ukrainian, showing of such films and/or programs shall be conditional upon their dubbing into the state language. For nationwide broadcasting, the share of air-time when broadcasting is carried out in the Ukrainian language may not be less than 75 % of the total daily broadcasting time. 

Considering the linguistic division in the country, the law met with harsh reactions from movie distributors as well as Russian-speaking Ukrainians. During the 2006 elections, Yanukovych's Party of the Region put much stress on linguistic division and the role of the Russian language in Ukraine once again.  In February 2006, a referendum was held in Crimea with the help of the Party of the Regions, and the Russian language was adopted as the second state language. However, the resolution appealed on the grounds that contradictory to Constitution. Party of the Regions used the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages as leverage in this sense. As an immediate effect of that, Kharkiv City Council appointed the Russian language as a “regional language” on March 6, 2006. Also, Lugansk Oblast Council and Sevastopol City Council initiated this special status of the Russian language, and Mykolaiv and Odesa followed the others. Nevertheless, this admitted status of Russian was retained in several courts.

Yanukovych elected as president broadly focused on the undermine nation-building process by reversing language policies in the country. As a major indicator of this 2012 Law on the Principles of the State Language Policy in Ukraine. Law enabled the use of regional or minority languages where the native speakers exceeded 10%. However, Law covered 18 minority languages, the targeted population was Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russian. According to the law, Russian is adopted as a regional language in Russian-speaking areas and used in courts, schools, and various institutions. In 2014, 2012 Law on the Principles of the State Language Policy was repealed, and within the Poroshenko period, a new legal provision on the Ukrainian language was adopted in 2019. This law stipulates that written and visual publications and film productions must have content predominantly in Ukrainian or translated into Ukrainian. besides, cultural events should also be held in the Ukrainian language, except for artistic requirements. The limited exceptions to this are ethnic minority languages such as Crimean Tatar.

While this law tried to improve the national position of the Ukrainian language, it created some tensions over the use of the Russian language and constituted only one front of the conflict between the two countries.