Yugeni Nikolaichuk, Moscow-Lvov. Exclusively to VK
After some setbacks, the Ukrainian Rada adopted the law on languages after its first hearing. The first step towards a common language area of the CIS countries was made by a country where the Russian language had been perceived ambiguously for several decades. Adoption of the law was hampered by the most radical “Western” group of deputies. Despite their resistance, the Russian language gained more freedom. Many Russian-speaking citizens of the Western provinces of Ukraine have claimed that for several decades they had no opportunity to use Russian. This was typical for Lvov, residents of which preferred to speak Ukrainian. The problem of young people not speaking Russian was considered to be their problem, as well as “principle non-speaking” by people of the elder generation who “forgot” Russian in 1991.
Is this typical today? Vestnik Kavkaza decided to check.
Russian speech can be heard in any place of the Western capital of Ukraine – Lvov – despite local prohibitions. City residents prefer “Russkoe Radio” to local radio programs. Local workers drink “Baltica 7” rather than Lvov beer “1715.” Even local housewives buy Russian and Belarusian milk products instead of national-produced cream.
Salesmen start to speak Russian immediately when you make a language mistake. Their aim is to sell a product, it doesn’t matter what language will help them in their business.
Fabric, clothes, and shoes made in Russia are in demand too, despite “sky-high” prices. News-stalls are full of Russian-speaking periodicals and Russian newspapers and magazines. Only a couple of local newspapers and tables of Euro-2012 in Ukrainian are presented among the periodicals. According to official Ukrainian statistics, 90% of internet bloggers prefer to use Russian.
The shift is very interesting: considering the real language division of Ukraine by 50/50, in blogs it is about 9:1. Of course it is incorrect to transfer internet statistics to the “offline population.” But the figures confirm that the Russian language will exist in Ukraine despite any prohibitions and restrictions.
In the center of Lvov the situation is different: people with drastic black banners which say:
"Двоязьічіє?
На собі спробуйте, янучари!"
The picture presents bloody scissors and cut tongue. The slogan: “For Freedom.”
These people seem to be normal. But they were asked to work in the public eye…
Bilingualism exists in many countries of the world and doesn’t bother anyone. It is not bilingualism that threatens Ukraine – nobody protests in Lvov against English pop-music or banners in English. It is about the struggle against Russian and the Russians. However, it has no prospects. The Soviet authorities managed to Ukrainize Lvov by natural methods (through development of economic potential, science, and culture), while the modern Lvov authorities try to Ukrainize the region and the country by artificial methods. And what is even more important – despite the desires of the Ukrainian people.
