Continued Effects of Russification Latvia and Ukraine

1
Continued Effects of RussificationLatvia and
Ukraine

• Sarah Beane
• SLAV 467
• November 29, 2007

2
Language in the USSR

• De facto national language in all republics was
  Russian prior to late 1980s
  
• Supported the maintenance of local languages, but
  Russian dominant in all important forms of
  communication
  
• Decline in Russian and increase in use of local
  languages important for nation building

3
Latvia Under USSR

• Migration patterns changed ethnic composition
• Many ethnic Russians came in
• Change in demographics affected language use

4
Domains

• During Soviets, Latvian restricted legally to
  only culture, education, media, and private
  life
  
• Knowledge of Russian necessary to perform
  professionally and socially

5
Early Latvian Government

• Promoting Latvian at expense of Russian
• Language test for citizenship discriminatory for
  Russians
  
• Affects Russians lose job if do not learn
  Latvian
  
• Work/economics very important

6
Latvia transform linguistically

• Demand bilingual Russians
• Policies may be working
• Every year since 1992 kids learning Latvian goes
  up, kids learning Russians goes down

7
Protection of Latvian Language

• 1989 Latvian made official language
• 1992 after transition period Russian lost
  official language status
  
• European organizations influence integrate
  minority groups into majority populations

8
Integration

• Russians afraid to lose culture and language
• Latvians very anti- Russian

9
Russification Effects

• Trying to prevent extinction and strengthen
  identities
  
• Russians comprised huge minority Latvians feared
  losing culture and selves
  
• Latvians want Russians to leave
• Expected them to after independence

10
Language in Ukraine in the USSR

• Soviet policies of development helped Ukrainian
  language and identity...
  
• BUT considered Ukraine a little Russia
• Ukrainian thought to be a dialect of Russian

11
Soviet Legacies

• Unification of many territories where Ukrainians
  were majority population
  
• Promoted Ukrainian nation building
• Large numbers of ethnic Russians migrated in
• Large numbers of Ukrainians became bilingual

12
Regional Differences

• One of the factors hindering development of
  national identity
  
• Eastern industrial, Russification was the
  strongest
  
• Western rural, far less Russified and remained
  fairly Ukrainian
  
• Soviet policies fostered internal disunity
  between East and West

13
Post-Independence

• State with a not well developed structure
• Strong identity with the territory of the former
  Ukrainian SSR
  
• Country united for independence in 1991

14
Alexander Motyl

• For all its vicissitudes, it did endow Ukraine
  with a linguistically coherent population that
  resembled a nation, a set of political activists
  who resembled an elite and an administration that
  resembled a state.

15
Russian Perception of Ukraine

• Majority of Russians, Belarusians, and 1/3
  Ukrainians think branches of one Russian people
  
• Thus Ukrainian independence is artificial and
  temporary
  
• May 1997 finally recognized Ukraines borders

16
Language

• Titular groups divided by language
• Linguistic lines between Ukrainian and Russian
  speakers
  
• Large proportion bilingual
• Russian identity based on language and culture
• Russian nation sometimes associated with speakers

17
Contemporary Policies

• Exclusionary language policy
• Reaction to Russification
• Ukrainian held higher than Russian
• Divisiveness between Russian and Ukrainian
  overriding theme of language situation
  
• Russia angry at policies to support and prop up
  Ukrainian at the expense of Russian
  

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Comparisons Between Latvia and Ukraine

• Postcommunist governments trying to assert their
  titular language over the previously dominant
  Russian
  
• Russian still more prevalent than native
  language
  
• Western Ukraine more similar to Baltic states
  than East Ukraine
  
• Education used to promote language
• Latvia rejects Soviet history more so than
  Ukraine does

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Conclusion

• Mostly, the implications of Russification are so
  important because language is such an integral
  part of identity. Recognizing this, both Latvia,
  Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union used and use
  it as a tool to create national unity, which is
  necessary for political, economic, or social
  goals.

20
Works Cited

• BBC Education Languages. /languages/european_languages/countries/latvia.sht
  ml?userimageprefoff (11/26/07).
  
• CIA The World Factbook. library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
  (11/26/07).
  
• Ciscel, Matthew, Richard Hallett, Angie Green.
  Language Attitudes and Identity in the European
  Republics of the Former USSR. Texas Linguistic
  Forum. 44.1 (2000) 48-61.
• Kuzio, Taras. National Identity and Democratic
  Transition in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Belarus
  (Part 1). Eastern European Perspectives. 14.15
  (2002) 1-15.
• Kuzio, Taras. National Identity and Democratic
  Transition in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Belarus
  (Part 2). Eastern European Perspectives. 14.16
  (2002) 1-13.

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Works Cited, cont.

• Kuzio, Taras. Ukraine Coming to Terms with the
  Soviet LegacyJournal of Communist and
  Transition Politics. 14.4 (1998) 1-27.
  
• Romanov, Arteml. The Russian Diaspora in Latvia
  and Estonia Predicting Language Outcomes.
  Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
  Development. 21.1 (2000) 58-71.
• Silova, Iveta. The Manipulated Consensus
  Globalisation, Local Agency, and Cultural
  Legacies in Post-Soviet Education Reform.
  European Educational Research Journal. 1.2
  (2002) 308-330.
• Zepa, Brigita. Citizenship, Official Language,
  Bilingual Education in Latvia Public Policy in
  the Last 10 Years. Baltic States Looking at
  Small Societies on Europes Margin. Ed. C.
  Giordano, A. vinkliene, D. Henseler.
  Switzerland, University Press Fribourg, 2003.
  83-97.