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Primary Language of Communication as a Secondary Indicator of National Identity: The Ukrainian Parliamentary and Presidential Elections of 1994 and the “Manifesto of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia” of 1995∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Yaroslav Bilinsky
Yaroslav Bilinsky*
Affiliation:
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
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Extract

In a famous article during the Soviet period, Walker Connor once asked, rhetorically:

The Ukrainians, as a method of asserting their non-Russian identity, wage their campaign for national survival largely in terms of their right to employ the Ukrainian, rather than the Russian, tongue in all oral and written matters. But would not the Ukrainian nation (that is, a popular consciousness of being Ukrainian) be likely to persist even if the language were totally replaced by Russian, just as the Irish nation has persisted after the virtual disappearance of Gaelic, despite pre-1920 slogans that described Gaelic and Irish identity as inseparable? Is the language the essential element of the Ukrainian nation, or is it merely a minor element which … has been elevated to the symbol of the nation in its struggle for continued viability? [Emphasis in the original]

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 661 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. Connor, Walker, “Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?” World Politics, Vol. 24, No. 3 (April 1972), pp. 337-338, as cited in Roman Solchanyk, “Language Politics in Ukraine” in Isabelle T. Kreindler, ed., Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Soviet National Languages: their past, present and future, in Contributions to the Sociology of Language, Vol. 40 (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1985), p. 57.Google Scholar

2. Arel, Dominique, “Language Politics in Independent Ukraine: Towards One or Two State Languages?” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 23, No. 3 (September 1995), p. 597. Arel also stresses the linguistic closeness and severe linguistic assimilation of the Ukrainians, which is true, but then goes out on a limb to state that Ukrainian is “at least passively understood by all Russians living in Ukraine” (p. 598). Standard Ukrainian is better understood and spoken by Ukrainian Jews and other, non-dominant ethnic minorities.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. See Ministerstvo Statystyky Ukrainy [Ukraine, Ministry of Statistics], Narodne hospodarstvo Ukrainy u 1993 rotsi: Staty-stychnyy shchorichnyk [National Economy of Ukraine in 1993: Statistical Yearbook] (Kyiv: “Tekhnika” [Technology Publishers], 1994), p. 384. See also Table 2.Google Scholar

4. Holos Ukrayiny, 1994, No. 137 (21 July), p. 2.Google Scholar

5. See Table 1.Google Scholar

6. Arel, Dominique and Wilson, Andrew, “Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections,” RFE/RL Research Report, Vol. 3, No. 26 (1 July 1994), pp. 6–17.Google Scholar

7. Arel ∧ Wilson, “Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections,” pp. 12–13 [box].Google Scholar

8. , See, above all, Wilson, Andrew, “The Growing Challenge to Kiev from the Donbas,” RFE/RL Research Report, Vol. 2, No. 33 (20 August 1993), pp. 8-13; also, Monika Jung, “The Donbas Factor in the Ukrainian Elections,” ibid., Vol. 3, No. 12 (25 March 1994), pp. 51–56.Google Scholar

9. See Holovatyi, Serhiy, Kudryashov, Serhiy, Odarych, Serhiy, Orobets', Yuriy, Tomenko, Mykola(chair), and Yablons'kyi, Vasyl', Eksklyuzyv vypusk 2: Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy; paradyhmy i paradoksy [Exclusive Issue No. 2: Supreme Council of Ukraine; paradigms and paradoxes] (Kyiv: “Ukrains'ka perspektyva” [Ukrainian Perspective Publishers], 1995), pp. 35–52.Google Scholar

10. , Solchanyk, “Language Politics in Ukraine,” p. 94.Google Scholar

11. “Manifest ukrains'koi intelihentsii” [Manifesto of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia], Literaturna Ukraina [henceforth Lit.U.], 1995, No. 37–38 (October 12), p. 1.Google Scholar

12. See the opening address by Drach, Ivan, “Obov'yazok pered narodom i Bat'kivshchynoyu” [(Our) Duty before (Our) People and Fatherland], Lit.U, 1995, No. 41–42 (16 November), p. 3, and also the photograph on p. 1.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., p. 3.Google Scholar

14. “Shchob ne zhasla svicha: Z Konhresu Ukrains'koi Intellihenstsii” [Lest the Candle Be Extinguished: From the Congress of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia], Lit.U., 1995, No. 43 (23 November), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 2. Volodymyr Hrynyov, born in the Belgorod Province of Russia and an ethnic Russian political leader from Kharkiv, had been a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine in 1991. In 1994, Hrynyov was, with Kuchma, co-leader of the Liberal Interregional Bloc of Deputies, but was barred from entering Parliament. Dr. Tabachnyk, Dmytro, a historian, successfully managed Kuchma's Presidential campaign in 1994 and is now serving as President Kuchma's Chief of Staff.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., p. 2. Unfortunately, the correspondent did not mention what Fishbein said, but merely recorded that he had addressed the Congress. The same overly laconic treatment was given People's Deputy Ihor R. Yukhnovsky, a prominent leader of Rukh. Google Scholar

17. Ibid., p. 2. From other, oral sources, I know that the project had been dated from 1995-2000, making it a veritable “Five-Year Plan.”Google Scholar

18. “Postanova Konhresu Ukrains'koi intelihentsii” [Decision (made by) the Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia], Lit.U., 1995, No. 41–42 (16 November), p. 3.Google Scholar

19. “Vystup Prezydenta Ukrainy Kuchmy, L. D. na III Vseukrains'komu Plenumi Tvorchykh Spilok Myttsiv Ukrainy” [Address of the President of Ukraine Kuchma, L. D. to the Third All-Ukrainian Plenum of Unions of Creative Artists of Ukraine], Lit.U., 1995, No. 41–42 (16 November), pp. 1–2. All citations from p. 2.Google Scholar

20. Basiuk, Victor, “News Analysis: will the west lose Ukraine?” Ukrainian Weekly, Vol. 64, No. 5 (Sunday 4 February 1996), p. 6.Google Scholar

21. Ibid. Google Scholar