Posted by Joe on March 20, 2000 at 19:22:27:
In Reply to: Re: Language Debate posted by Ann Fill on March 20, 2000 at 17:13:21:
: We have OURr culture, we have OUR language, we have all we need to be our own people. The Russians have no need to butt into our affairs. Their continuing backwardness has prevented them from seeing that oppression is NOT the key to success and harmony. And not making Russian as an official language is in no way oppression or anything of the sort. If the Russians insist on living in OUR land, they had better learn to CONFORM to our standards!
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: I can't tell you how sorry I am that I started to learn the Ukrainian language. It's a beautiful language to be sure, but to learn it to what avail? So a person can read bigoted narrow-minded
: crap like this in the native language?? This nonsense is just repulsive to a native American.
: I never did understand why so many peaceful people of the Carpathian Mtns balked at being identified as Ukrainians. But if this intolerant attitude is typical, then their attitude seems more understandable.
RE: They balked to be named Ukrainians because they are Rusyns and not Ukrainians. They learned to live peacefully with Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Czechs, Rumanians, Russians, Ukrainians and Jews. Unlike in Ukraine, where pogroms, starting from the time of the Ukrainian Cossack leader Bogdan Chmelnicky, were frequent for several centuries, there was not one single case of a pogrom against Jews or Germans in this region that was initiated by Rusyns. After brutal annexation of Transcarpathia, (majority of Rusyns live here) to USSR by Stalin and years of exposure to the Soviet system, these people did not develop animosity towards the dominant Russians as you can see it in Baltic Republics or in the case of many Ukrainians. Currently, Transcarpathia has about 50 000 Russians. The Ukrainians are keen of Cossacks (kozac'koho rodu) as they defined themselves in their national anthem. Rusyns have nothing to do with Cossacks whatsoever. These are village centric, mountain people, their life is concentrated around family, church and community, and their history is very different. Their language is closer to Ukrainian than to Russian language, but that's it. Currently, they would like to learn in schools their own Rusyn language, culture and history, to be called Rusyns and not Ukrainians, and have some control over their own life. They are trying to reach these goals peacefully and not to secede from Ukraine. Well, Ukrainians have a chance to demonstrate that they can handle the Rusyn problem in a civilized way and not as Russians used to do it. As you may know, Ukrainians would like to join the EU. This should be a good litmus test for them. Finally, isn't it amazing how nationalistic feeling limits a capacity to think. The argument for compulsory use of Ukrainian language goes "because of closeness of Russia, the Russian speaking population becomes a part of Russia …etc". And what about Swiss French and language in Switzerland? The French speaking Swiss could be a part of France, but they do not wont to be. Is it so difficult to comprehend that the Swiss French remained as a part of Switzerland because they have more control over their life?
Sincerely, Joe