Soviet Symbols and Language in Ukraine

By Wolodymyr Derzko

When the issue of language appears in the Ukrainian media, it is usually prompted by politicians and not the language-speaking population and is a sure sign that elections are approaching. Ukrainian political parties often focus on the language card when they want to mobilize their electorates. 

Back in February, the Party of Regions said that by July 2007, they would be ready to vote on a bill giving Russian official language status. Several city councils including Kharkiv, Donetsk and Mykolaiv have passed resolutions making Russian an “official regional language.” President Yushchenko countered that Ukraine’s Constitution does not recognize the concept of an “official regional language” and that Ukrainian is the only Official State Language.

Debate on Internet chat sites has been frequent and fierce, including name-calling. Debate among politician is no less civil. On February 21, the Party of Regions of Ukraine’s Donetsk Regional Branch issued a statement calling the government to “stop limiting the rights of Russian-speaking citizens.”  The statement is in protest of the Ministry of Culture’s initiative to introduce compulsory Ukrainian-language dubbing for half of all foreign-made movies for adults and for all movies for children, calling it “discrimination against the Russian language.” 

Western Ukraine strongly opposes granting any status to Russian.  In addition, Lviv City Council has passed a motion to strike a committee that would look at the continued relevance of Soviet monuments, to which Moscow immediately reacted to in a negative manner. In a statement, Donetsk City Council accused the western regions of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II and urged that part of the country to respect Donetsk’s “culture and traditions, and its native language”.  PRU Council Secretary Mykola Levchenko expressed an even more radical view.  “The Russian language has to be a state language in Ukraine,” said Levchenko in Ukrainski Novyny.  “The Ukrainian language will continue to exist as a language of folklore, but it contributes nothing to the development of science or interethnic communication, because nobody knows it.”  Levchenko’s colleagues quickly back-tracked, explaining that this opinion was a private view, rather than the party’s position - but the damage was already done.

During the Easter Weekend, Pop Star Oleh Skrypka, was asked about speaking Ukrainian instead of Russian on the popular Ukrainian TV show “Dancing with the Stars.” He responded that he lived in many countries including France and Russia. He told the visibly shocked female show host that denigrating the official state language is a criminal offence in most countries and that she should be lucky that she lives in such a democratic country like Ukraine.

With the recent Russian-Estonian conflict over the re-burial of Soviet soldiers, the question of Soviet symbols and monuments has been added to the “language card”.

The Polish government has taken a firm position on the issue of Soviet symbolism, categorically stating that there is no room for Soviet symbols and that they are “foreign” to Polish culture and will be removed. Contrast that to the event on May 1^st -- a small village in Poltava Oblast erected a new monument to Lenin. Admittedly, the legacy of Stalin and Lenin are viewed differently in the West and in Ukraine, in general. Some may argue that this is a sign of Ukrainian tolerance, but it’s hard to imagine that Germany or Israel would be erecting statues in honour of Hitler in this day and age.

When asked recently about this issue in Toronto, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk responded that the official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that it is the sovereign right of Estonia to dictate the place of monuments and military burials, and this is enshrined in international law. He added that with respect to re-burials, this must be done with the utmost respect and honour for military servicemen, since, it cannot be ruled out that Ukrainian soldiers may be buried there too.

Commenting on Soviet symbolism, Yatsenyuk agreed that it is a sensitive issue and but added that this is not a real problem in Ukraine.  Yatsenyuk added that it was only several weeks ago that he finally removed the Soviet “Hammer and Sickle” symbol from the entrance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that had been hanging there for the past 16 years.

Taking a middle ground, Yatsenyuk noted that Ukraine’s approach should be balanced (pomirkovanyj).  He reminded the audience that Ukraine had a 70-year-long history when one group came and removed all the monuments. Society will decide weather it values its monuments or symbols or not or if we need to create political action out of it. Society should be given time to mature to re-evaluate certain values. Therefore the Minister is against any radical revisions of history. “We shouldn’t repeat the mistakes that were made before 1991.” concluded Yatsenyuk.

Despite the polite applause, many people in the crowd would have wished for a more firm response.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have all established museums at former KGB prisons and headquarters commemorating the systemic torture that took place during the Soviet occupation. I seriously doubt whether we will see anything similar in Ukraine, anytime soon.