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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Readers Sound Off 

10 November, 1998 - 00:00

To the Editor, The Day:

You asked for comment on the remarks below in Natalia Lihachova'a article
from No. 33 of September 22:

She cited: "'I'd like you to change just one thing: do not publish the
paper in Russian because The Day is a classy paper but not a Muscovite
one!' with no name. Interesting, why does the author not worry about the
English language weekly digest of The Day? We are still open to
discussion, though. "

Ms. Lihachova's remarks struck a really negative chord with me. I usually
read The Day in Ukrainian and English and although it's never been
overtly Ukrainian nationalistic I've never found Russophile tendencies
in it. With Ms. Lihachova's remark that has now changed. While the reader's
commentary was obviously meant to be inflammatory (i.e., classy paper,
Muscovite), they represented the views of only one reader -  the question
is how the editors let Ms. Lihachova's commentary in response through?

Come on now. Is it my role as a Canadian to recite Ukrainian history
to you? Lihachova asks why the author does not worry about the weekly English
language edition? Well don't you think maybe it's because there hasn't
been an ongoing assault on the Ukrainian language by the English language
for the last several hundred years? Was there an English ukase against
Ukrainian similar to the Ems ukase of 1876? Did English authorities close
down Ukrainian cultural institutions such as Prosvita societies like Soviet
authorities directed from Moscow did? In current terms, how many of the
50 million residents of Ukraine speak English daily? Do they shop, go to
school, get hospital and social services in English? Of course not, but
these opportunities and so much more exists for Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Yes, I'll grant Ms. Lihachova that English is currently probably having
a greater impact than Russian on spoken Ukrainian but that's because it's
a far more global language than Russian and as the last five years or so
have shown the impact of English on Ukrainian (and Russian for that matter)
is such that it's regularly crept into the Ukrainian language including
The Day with words such as impeachment and image-maker, coming to
mind. But limited Anglicization of the language is one thing while the
Russification that in the past nearly led to total assimilation is another.

In my opinion, The Day should publish an English language daily
that mirrors the Ukrainian one. It would open up an immense new readership.
Instead of having a redundant Russian language daily edition that is a
translation of the Ukrainian edition, you could have a weekly Russian edition
if there is continued demand for it. To me it would make much more sense
to arrange your editions in this way since residents of Ukraine are allegedly
almost all Russian/Ukrainian bilingual, and so the question naturally arises
why duplicate efforts the way you currently are? Cynically, I could answer
that the paper's Russian edition is paramount since in reality it is written
primarily in Russian by its journalists and then translated by editors
and linguistic experts into Ukrainian and thereby masquerades as a Ukrainian
paper that is really the province of Russian-speakers. I however have to
give up being so conspiratorial in my assessments, and besides I have more
faith in you than that!

Yours truly, Taras MYHAL, Toronto, Canada

 

Dear Mr. Myhal,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your attention to our newspaper
and to my short piece on The Day's photo exhibit.  Likewise,
I have read your letter to The Day with a great deal of respect
and attention.  Moreover, as a Ukrainian, I fully share your views
on the russification processes that had been going on in Ukraine until
recently.

However, I am sure you will agree that in order to strengthen and develop
the independent Ukrainian state, we need a powerful, attractive national
idea - the kind of idea that would be able to unite the entire country
and people in the name of building a truly free, democratic, and civil
society in Ukraine.  In this context, I would like to stress the word
"unite."

Yet, for historical reasons, Ukrainian citizenship is not associated
with a person's ethnicity, and a huge number of Russian-speaking Ukrainians,
especially in eastern Ukraine, is, perhaps, their problem, but by no means
their sin.  For the sake of unification, we should simply accept this
as a fact and base our desire to develop and strengthen Ukraine's independence
not on the idea of a "Ukrainian people" but rather on the idea of a "Ukrainian
political nation" comprising virtually everything born and produced in
Ukraine's economical, political, social, and spiritual life by Ukrainians,
Russians, Tatars, Moldovans, Hungarians in the Ukrainian, Russian, Tatar,
and other languages.  And our work for Ukraine's well-being should
become the symbol of this idea, which, in my view, is the most constructive
and promising approach.

As far as our everyday interaction with one another, I am sure that
while not simply respecting but also thoroughly studying our past and trying
to make sense of the complicated, enslaving relations between Ukraine and
Russia, we should still build our new life from a tabula rasa.  We
should say to ourselves that we cast aside all bad things we have had in
the past and start a totally new life based on the modern level of humanism
and civilization.  Otherwise, we will run into a dead end, and some
people will always consider themselves humiliated or under-appreciated,
while others will view each and every phrase and action by a Russian or
a Ukrainian speaker as an attempt to put them down, to belittle their national
dignity. This way, we will never overcome the aggressiveness and distrust
of one another in our society.  The fact that the tabula rasa
philosophy is rather global and historically feasible is proven by the
processes currently underway in the world, for example,  the Israeli-Palestine
and the British-Irish relations. And, incidentally, for seven years of
Ukraine's independence, I have been witnessing the contradictions between
Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking Ukrainians soften considerably.  
Western Ukraine is becoming more tolerant, while the eastern region is
treating Ukrainian ethnic culture with more respect and understanding,
aware of the need to study it and send their children to Ukrainian schools. 
Indeed, we seem to be starting to unite on the basis of common interests
- spiritual, economic, political, social - without making our right to
consider ourselves Ukrainians contingent on meeting any special requirements.

It seems to me that we should not deprive those who want to read The
Day in Russian of their right to do so.  Rather, it will be better
if in the future The Day  is published in Tatar, Hungarian,
German, or Bulgarian, because our main goal is to help the forces that
are trying to create appropriate conditions for every Ukrainian to have
a free and constructive life.

Natalia LIHACHOVA, The Day

 

 

 

 

 

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