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Window on Eurasia: <b>Kyiv Disputes Moscow’s Claim Few Ukrainians in
Russia Want Native Language Schools <br>
</b><br>
<br><br>
Paul Goble<br><br>
<br><br>
Vienna, May 4 – Moscow’s assertion that ethnic Ukrainians in the
Russian Federation, that country’s second largest nationality, do not
have any problems with education in their own national language because
they are not asking for it “does not correspond to reality,” according to
a spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry.<br><br>
A week
ago, Andrey Nesterenko, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said, in
responding to an OSCE report, acknowledged that there were few Ukrainian
language schools but said that reflected an absence of demand by
Ukrainians for them rather than a Moscow policy against such schools
(<a href="http://rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/27apr2009/ukrschool.html">rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/27apr2009/ukrschool.html</a>).<br><br>
The
lack of such demands, the Russian diplomat continued, reflects what he
described as “the closeness of the Eastern Slavic languages and cultures,
the common history (Kievan Rus, the Moscow State, the Russian Empire and
the USSR) and the common Christian faith” of the Russians and
Ukrainians.<br><br>
Not
surprisingly, Ukrainians and Ukrainian officials were outraged not only
because Moscow has always insisted on the provision of Russian-language
schools in Ukraine – and complained when any of them are closed – but
also because Nesterenko’s claim about the situation in Russia where in
fact Ukrainians would like Ukrainian language schools “does not
correspond to the facts”
(<a href="http://www.vz.ru/news/4/30/282440.html">www.vz.ru/news/4/30/282440.html</a>).<br><br>
Indeed, Ukrainian commentators have pointed out, Ukraine does support
Russian language education in its schools and that last year, the OSCE
commissar on national minorities declared after examining the situation
there that he did not find “any violation of the rights of the Russian
language population in Ukraine”
(<a href="http://rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/27mar2008/mova.html">rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/27mar2008/mova.html</a>).
<br><br>
Vasily
Kirilich, a spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, said that
Nesterenko’s statement was intended to mislead the OSCE by creating “the
false impression of the supposedly problem-free nature of Ukrainian
national cultural development in Russia,” a particular travesty because
ethnic Ukrainians at 2.5 million are the second largest national minority
there.<br><br>
He pointed out that in Moscow alone, there are now more than 250,000
ethnic Ukrainians but not a single middle school with instruction in the
Ukrainian language, something that creates problems both for the
indigenous Ukrainian population of the city and the many other Ukrainians
who “work temporarily” there and plan to return to Ukraine. <br><br>
Elsewhere in the Russian Federation, throughout which ethnic Ukrainians
are to be found, the situation is even worse, he said. At present
“there is no school” anywhere in the Russian Federation where the entire
academic program is conducted in the Ukrainian language. There exists
only [a few] schools with an ethno-national (ethno-cultural)
component.”<br><br>
The
Ukrainian diplomat was clearly infuriated by the suggestion that
Ukrainians living in the Russian Federation were not interested in
preserving their own language through the schools and that, to use
Nesterenko’s words, “citizens of the Russian Federation of Ukrainian
nationality and Russians among citizens of Ukraine are in a different
ethno-cultural situation.”<br><br>
Russian commentaries in support of Moscow’s point of view, such as
Aleksandr Karavayev today, have suggested that the Ukrainians have only
themselves to blame. Moscow has routinely supported
Russian-language efforts in Ukraine, but Kyiv has been largely inactive
in supporting Ukrainian-programs in Ukraine
(<a href="http://www.ia-centr.ru/expert/4599/">www.ia-centr.ru/expert/4599/</a>).<br><br>
While
there is some truth in what Karavayev says, that claim ignores two
longer-standing if unfortunate realities. On the one hand, in
Soviet times, Moscow provided Russian-language schools in all republics
but did not provide any schools for non-Russians in their language
outside their titular territories.<br><br>
Thus,
while Ukrainians living in Ukraine did have schools in Ukrainian, those
Ukrainians living elsewhere did not, unlike Russians who in almost all
cases had Russian-language schools wherever they lived. The current
situation is a survival of that past, one Ukrainians and many other
non-Russians decry.<br><br>
And on
the other, this pattern reflects an even older view, long propounded by
Russians and accepted by many Western specialists. According to that
view, Ukrainians and Belarusians are “byproducts” of Russian
ethno-national development, and thus it is entirely appropriate that they
be integrated linguistically and politically with the Russian nation and
state.<br><br>
In fact, as the Ukrainians and Belarusians know and, as statements like
that of Kirilich last week show, are increasingly prepared to defend,
those two nations have a separate and distinct ethno-national and
political history, one that deserves equal treatment and respect not only
from the Russians but from all members of the international community as
well. <br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica">Vera Andrushkiw<br>
Vice President for External Relations<br><br>
<br>
U.S.-Ukraine Foundation<br>
1701 K Street, N.W. Suite 903<br>
Washington, DC 20006<br>
Phone: (202) 223-2228 x 13<br>
Fax: (202) 223-1224<br><br>
E-mail: vandrushkiw@usukraine.org<br>
On the Internet:
<a href="http://www.usukraine.org/" eudora="autourl">www.usukraine.org</a></font>
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