The east will not swallow it

The scandalous language legislation, proposed by the MPs for the Party of Regions Kolesnichenko and Kivalov, has evoked yet another response from the public. A week after the approving of the bill, a member of the local legislative assembly in Luhansk, one of the most predominantly Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine, addressed the oblast branch of the Ukraine-wide Prosvita Association with a proposal to jointly launch and implement the “Program of Development and Popularization of the Ukrainian Language in Luhansk.” The legislator volunteered to finance the initiative on his own. He insists that the budget will not be exorbitant.

With an upcoming election in prospect, a question logically suggests itself, if this could be anything but campaigning. Well, it might be, but on the other hand, this initiative might help support Ukrainian in Luhansk, under the supervision of civic organizations at that. After all, promotion of the development of language is a suitable task for statesmen, local legislators in particular.

The Day interviewed the initiator of the “Program of Development and Popularization of the Ukrainian Language in Luhansk,” member of the Luhansk city council for the Front of Change, leader of the United Opposition in Luhansk oblast, Ihor LISKI about the causes which prompted the Program, its contents, and further plans as to its dissemination in Ukraine.

What prompted you to launch the “Program of Development and Popularization of the Ukrainian Language in Luhansk,” jointly with Prosvita?

“The Party of Regions’ language legislation, which is obviously far-fetched and irrelevant for Ukraine, is a step backwards in the development of Ukrainian national identity. It is the product of political technologists who, anxious to please one party, want to divide the electorate into two antagonistic camps on the grounds of linguistic identity. This draft bill is the price, which the aspiring MPs for the Party of Regions will have to pay for being admitted to the parliament, or at least this is what they believe it to be. But playing at bilingual games, Ukraine is running the risk of sliding back, forfeiting its national self-identification or even losing its very independence. What should unite the nation is now being used as an instant bomb before the election. Thus language has become commodity, instead of being disseminated and popularized in the Russian-speaking regions of the country.

“I grew up in Luhansk and I can say that over the 20 years Ukraine has failed to come up with a set of efficient tools for the popularization of Ukrainian in the Russian-speaking regions. No one would explain why it is important to learn the country’s official language. However, they should have done that. In my view, the language problem should be solved with the help of incentives. The promotion of the Ukrainian language means first of all the promotion of Ukrainian national and cultural identity. Unfortunately, until now no one has taken up this problem in earnest in Luhansk oblast, so there is no end to work.”

What is the main difference between the program you proposed and the steps which had been taken during those 20 years?

“Working on the Program, we proceeded from the assumption that the language problem should be divided in two. The first part of it is that every government official must know Ukrainian as the country’s official language. This is undisputed. The second part, and this is actually what the program is about, deals with the popularization of Ukrainian in cultural aspects, the education of the youth and that part of the population which wishes to pursue self-education. The interest in the language will be instigated through a system of competitive grants in the form of financial and organizational assistance to artistic and civic initiatives.

“At present, an independent contest panel has been created, including Oleksii Nezhevy, member of Ukraine’s National Writers’ Union, professor at Taras Shevchenko Luhansk National University, Volodymyr Semystiaha, chairman of the Luhansk oblast branch of the Ukraine-wide Prosvita Association, Viktoria Pylypenko, deputy president of the youth civic organization Luhansk Students’ Union, and Anatolii Neirulin, Ph.D., associate professor at the department of Ukrainian philology and general linguistics, Taras Shevchenko Luhansk National University. By August 24, the panel will have held a contest of projects and selected the best ones in the following nominations: literature, music, and innovative curriculum for the development of the Ukrainian language (or a lecture for school or university curriculum). Prospective participants can mail personal information and the description of their projects to the specially created Council for the development and popularization of Ukrainian in Luhansk oblast, at mova_lg@ukr.net. Such contests will be held in Luhansk two more times, before the year is out.

“In the framework of the Program, assistance will be rendered to Ukrainian-language writers for publishing their books, to music bands for recording songs in Ukrainian, arrangement of tours, and duplication of albums. All teachers of Ukrainian from comprehensive secondary and higher schools of Luhansk oblast are invited to develop innovative Ukrainian curricula and submit them for the contest.

“Besides, starting on September 1, Ukrainian language training courses are to be launched on the basis of the territorial subsidiary of Prosvita. They will be freely available to all. At the moment the teaching staff are being selected, who will provide fun and advanced levels of teaching Ukrainian. I believe that such measures can really make Ukrainian popular among the youth, which will actually be the major carrier and successor of Ukrainian identity and its traditions. I do not know why state will not preoccupy itself with this.”

The next parliamentary election is looming large. Since you lead the United Opposition in Luhansk oblast, your initiative looks like campaigning and an attempt at winning voters over.

“You are mistaken if you think that one can earn a lot of political credits on the Ukrainian language in Luhansk or the oblast. Sadly enough, today Ukrainian is unpopular in the east of the country for a number of reasons. One of them is poor governmental support, which essentially boils down to adding or removing several hours of Ukrainian to or from school syllabi. Outside school, no one displays any interest and readiness to devote time to this problem. However, I believe that the stereotype of the domination of Russian in eastern Ukraine could be broken, if national cultural measures are supported and promoted. We can look for expertise to Finland, which was able to raise the level of using Finnish by its population from 12 to 98 percent.

“Truth be told, Ukrainians do not have any language barrier problem on a large scale, which we are being made to believe. It is rather a problem for politicians, who are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. However, the Party of Regions’ political technologists overlooked the disservice which they had done to the Russian language, when they agitated the nationally conscious part of society.”

Will you spread this program to other regions?

“At the moment, this is a pilot project for Luhansk and the oblast. Should it prove successful, it could be spread to other regions, via the initiation of a government-supported program. This will allow involving a considerable stratum of the population into the process of promoting the Ukrainian language.”

COMMENTARIES

Volodymyr SEMYSTIAHA, chairman of the Luhansk oblast branch of the Ukraine-wide Prosvita Association:

“Today, the Ukrainian language does not enjoy sufficient support in Luhansk oblast. According to the latest census, 58 percent of the oblast’s population is Ukrainians. Ukrainian is taught at schools, too. Thus, everyone knows Ukrainian, with the exception of the recent immigrants from Russia or the Caucasus. However, the speakers of Ukrainian do not have an oblast-scale newspaper, or Ukrainian-speaking programs on television or radio. It is the public that is capable of changing the situation. The Program’s chief task is the development and consolidation of statehood in the extreme east of Ukraine. We hope that mostly young people, artists, and intellectuals will participate in this program. We already have volunteers, eager to learn or perfect their Ukrainian at our language courses. There are many Russian speakers, who would like to improve their Ukrainian.

“We are planning to hold Ukrainian classes twice a week. The faculty will vary from retired teachers of Ukrainian to doctors of linguistics. Prosvita used to offer such courses free of charge, so our teachers got no fees. Now, according to the Program, we are to get material assistance, and teachers will be paid.”

Anatolii NEIRULIN, Ph.D. (Philology), associate professor at the department of Ukrainian philology and general linguistics, Taras Shevchenko Luhansk National University:

“In Luhansk oblast the official status of Ukrainian is absolutely unrealized. Therefore, considerable effort is needed to remedy the situation. I believe that any idea, aiming at promoting the Ukrainian language, must be implemented. The methods are another question. I work at a university. All our freshmen have an adequate competence of Ukrainian. Thus, it would be incorrect to say that young people do not know the official language. The problem is that Ukrainian is hardly ever used outside school. That is to say, Ukrainian enjoys the official status formally, but is very little spoken, in fact. Courses of Ukrainian, in the framework of this Program, could expand the habitat of the language.”