Poetic
quotes such as “нації вмирають не
від інфаркту спочатку в них відбирають мову” (Nations
do not die from a heart stroke – at first they are deprived of their language)
while undoubtedly lyrical, are devoid of any testability beyond iambic
pentameter. The purpose of this article is to expose the ubiquitous lack of
reasoning behind the most popular arguments put forward for not allowing
Russian language any legally recognized status.
We often
hear: “The name of the country is Ukraine, hence the only legal language must
be Ukrainian.” The frequency with which it is said (even by people with higher
education) is peculiar in its own right, because a 15 second look at the world
map will reveal plenty of independent countries for which this presumed axiom
does not hold: from Austria to Australia to Aruba to Argentina to Belgium to
Brazil to Belize to Bosnia and this is just an (incomplete) list of countries
starting with letters “A” and “B…”
Another
platitude deserving attention is: “The state language is Ukrainian, it is what
it is – deal with it.” Sucha quaint example of circular logic rests on the
notion that a state language is as impervious to changes as the Laws of
Thermodynamics. Closer look at even most recent world history will reveal that
this process is indeed very possible without altering Earth’s gravity.
What about
the opinion that “We have to go back to the times when everybody spoke
Ukrainian?” While being a credible position in Imagination Land, it, of course
has nothing to do with reality. The veracity with which this myth is reiterated
at times passes for sincerity. Millions upon millions of people living in the
territory of modern Ukraine have been speaking both languages for centuries.
Some would
argue that: “People who support Russian as a second language are against
Ukrainian.”
It cannot
be farther from truth as there has not been a single credible social study made
showing that people who want to give Russian any legal status want it to be the
ONLY official language allowed.
Others will
say that “People supporting Russian as a second language want reunification with
Russia.” Again, no credible evidence has been put forward. As a side note –who,
one may wonder, in the Party of Regions would like to pay “a cut” to Moscow? A
desire for stronger economic/cultural ties is NOT the same thing as being ruled
by another country.
One of the
counter arguments on the topic to be heard sounds like: “You cannot make a
comparison to multilingual Europe because Ukraine is very different.”
Of course,
no country is shown which we CAN actually compare Ukraine to. The irony gets
amplified when it comes to conversations about membership in European Union
–these unbridgeable differences tend to be conveniently forgotten. This
position is probably the more irresponsible one because it suggests that we
should not use any historical precedents even as approximate guides, not
mentioning being in direct contradiction to human rights aspects of the very
Europe, part of which they are striving to be.
A statement
that “Ukrainian language will not survive” –is hardly said with a straight
face. If actually meant seriously, it is borderline cowardly because people
saying it are inherently implying Ukrainian language’s inferiority, and that
the only way it can survive is through forcing it upon the unwilling: “Mommy, kids
won’t play with me – can you make them?”The fact that Ukrainian language proved
its self-sufficiency and vitality during the hardest of times will make one
doubt the seriousness of this claim.
The
absolute majority of arguments put forward on this topic can be found in the
paragraphs above. We can speculate about the source of emotions which make the
aforementioned “reasoning” go unchallenged, but I would surmise that Russian
nationalists have a lot to do with this anger fueling if not creating
thisbitter disdain.
Ukraine,
being a young country needs its identity, its heroes, but the fact that Andriy Shevhenko
or Yana Klochkova speak Russian, does not make their achievements less
Ukrainian. Investing in Ukrainian language and culture is a venture worth
undertaking, but it shouldn’t be stained with a shameful practice oflanguage
cleansing.
Yan Pronin
works for Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas, Nevada.
