For many Ukrainians, the Russian invasion became a decisive factor that increasingly motivates them to speak the state language. This process acquired a mass character, the Ukrainian language began to be heard more and more often on the streets, in transport, in shops, as well as on social networks. However, against this background, the language conflict in our society does not subside, but has long since gone beyond the latent limit and is gaining more and more momentum.
On May 11, photojournalist Yan Dobronosov published a video on Facebook in which graduates of a Kharkiv school rehearse a waltz at 05:30 in the morning, while there are no cars on the road.
This video provoked a massive heated discussion among Ukrainians: some are extremely indignant that the schoolchildren and the choreographer speak Russian, writing in the comments that it is unpleasant for them to hear Russian from people who suffer from the Russian Federation on a daily basis. Others do not pay attention to the language, but are fascinated by the children’s desire to organize a festive graduation, despite the constant shelling of Kharkiv. People are outraged by the fact that our “children of war” are deprived of childhood, cannot get a quality education, and they are also attacked for speaking Russian.
It is noteworthy that, unlike residents from other cities, Kharkiv residents themselves do not condemn the schoolchildren and the choreographer in their Facebook groups, but only wish them well.
The scandalously famous Ukrainian actor and TV presenter Antin Mukharskyi joined the critics of the choreographer and the children. He wrote that the waltz is a frank message to save “Russian peace” in Kharkiv, noting: “Muscovites are already playing this video on their channels with comments: “Kharkov is a Russian city. Wait for us, relatives! We are close. Already 30 kilometers away”. Mukharskyi also noted that after watching the video, it is not clear in which city the events are taking place, because only the Russian language is heard.
In this case, the users of the social network were also divided into two camps: some agree with Mukharsky, while others, on the contrary, support the graduates and see nothing wrong with the Russian language. In addition, they criticized the actor himself, reproaching him for resolving enmity between people, unwillingness to go to war and show his true patriotism not in words, but in deeds, as well as in his dislike of children, insults of Ukrainian women and constant obscene statements
People’s deputy of Ukraine from “Servant of the People” Maksym Buzhansky reacted to Mukhtarskyi’s reaction regarding the rehearsal of graduates from Kharkiv:
For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that Mukharskyi is a representative of the cultural community, for almost some time he was an adviser to the Minister of Culture of Ukraine. However, this does not prevent him from inciting linguistic enmity, allowing himself obscene abuse on social networks and during interviews, although the fact that it comes from the mouths of our officials and media persons does not surprise anyone. No matter how unpleasant it is, some of Mukharskyi’s statements should be cited separately in order to get a complete picture of a person who criticizes Kharkiv children.
The story of why he does not fight:
“At the beginning of the war, he joined the Vasylkiv Teroboron. He dreamed of killing a Muscovite, but instead he almost killed a SBUshnyk who, together with his comrades, was going to take the Russian DRG. This is called “friendly fire”. I understood one thing: war is very scary. Therefore, a volunteer. What can you do not to get into the trench. Together with his wife, they collected more than 7 million hryvnias for the needs of the Armed Forces. To fight is to fight. Because of that, I suffer a lot morally.”
Statements about his family and his children (he has five of them):
“Thank you for life to mom, dad (who has been looking at us from heaven for two years), for education to the children who sent me to hell before I sent them (I say sincerely – well done – because that way I feel less gloom). For warmth and childhood memories – to my brother, close relatives, whose birthdays I often forget…”.
Statements about Ukrainian women:
“In a world where collective Antonina rules, a man’s place is in the grave… Don’t you know who Antonina is? So I will explain: this is such an unofficial television term that denotes the collective archetype of an average woman of middle age, with a secondary education, mediocre physical data, who at one time, (mostly on the fly), degenerated one or two pieces of living flesh, proudly calls herself “They say” that a priori gives her the right to create all kinds of shit, because on her side are the courts, neighbors, militia-police, public opinion, friends, media, tabloid press, left-wing organizations.”
However, let’s leave Mukharskyi’s behavior to the discretion of the public and move on to a really important problem – the language conflict in Ukrainian society, which today has acquired significant proportions. Undoubtedly, the Ukrainian language is the state language, it is necessary to communicate with it, it is necessary to develop it. In our country, the language issue is always extremely acute and often oscillates between extremes. Politicians and activists from both camps shake up the already great social tension in society by their actions – Russian-speaking citizens call the ban on speaking Russian a restriction of their rights. At the same time, the most radical defenders of the Ukrainian language consider almost all of them FSB agents and potential traitors. As in any situation, the truth should be found somewhere in the middle.
It turned out that, under the influence of historical factors, a large number of citizens of Ukraine (especially in the Eastern regions) speak Russian since childhood, and we, as a society, need to take this into account, but from the position of extremely flexible Ukrainization. Recently, the percentage of those who have switched to the Ukrainian language has been increasing, but this is not the result of powerful pressure on Russian-speaking citizens, but rather the elevation of their national consciousness, especially in the conditions of the war with the Russian Federation. However, it is extremely difficult for adults to change their habits, because usually people do not change. What can we say about the language they listened to from diapers.
Enmity within society, theses of the type “Suitcase. Station. Russia.” are absolutely unacceptable in the language issue, because instead of motivation and support, a person who can potentially become a Ukrainian speaker, on the contrary, receives only aggression, turns on the defense mechanism and does not want to communicate in Ukrainian. Ukrainians must know the state language and use it in official affairs, and in everyday life they can communicate in the language they choose, without being discredited or oppressed. In this case, Ukrainians will gradually be able to switch to the state language, taking into account their own wishes. However, when trying to communicate in Ukrainian, people in most cases use surzhik, twisting words. In addition, now the language is often diluted with foreign words and slang, which makes the extremely beautiful and melodious Ukrainian language turn into a completely different, non-literary one, difficult to understand.
Civilized European countries, which we try to emulate, successfully exist in conditions of multilingualism. At the same time, the social roles of languages in Europe are as diverse as the languages themselves. Multilingualism does not prevent countries from developing, nor does it cause any conflicts among citizens. So, for example, in Great Britain there are 6 official languages (English, Irish, Welsh, Gaelic, Scots, Cornish), in Switzerland – 4 official languages (German, Italian, French, Retro-Romance), in Belgium – 3 (Dutch, French, German), in Bosnia and Herzegovina also 3 (Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian).
Currently, the total number of languages used in the world reaches approximately 6.5 thousand. Moreover, India is the leader in the largest number of official languages, there are 17 of them in the country. In the USA, there is no single state language, and English is official in only 28 states.
It should be noted that about 120 million people in Europe now speak Russian. As you know, language is the most reliable keeper of historical memory. The beginning of the history of the Russian literary language is considered the time of the emergence of writing, connecting it with Cyril and Methodius, thanks to whom in the XI-XV centuries. began to write on birch letters. However, now the Russian language is identified with the enemy who attacked Ukraine, calling it “the language of the aggressor”.
It is noteworthy that there are no language conflicts in our army. The military, both Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking, stand side by side and together protect the entire Ukrainian people, and they call each other brothers. At the same time, the Russian-speaking military defends, including those who criticize them and point to “suitcases with a train station”. Thus, in an interview with TSN.UA, a former Azov fighter from the 3rd OShBr and an instructor of the Colonel Yevhen Konovalts Military School of Commanders with the call sign “Maktavish” stated:
“I myself switched to Ukrainian in 2017, before that I spoke either Surzh or Russian. My personal opinion: the state should be Ukrainianized as much as possible, we should speak Ukrainian, television should be Ukrainian, news, state apparatus should work in Ukrainian. But now, at this very moment, there is no language problem in the army. Yes, they can communicate with each other in the trenches in Surzhik, Ukrainian, Russian – it’s all in such a mess. But there is no problem in this. The main thing for the military now is to fulfill their tasks, and what language they will speak is not so important.
The issue of language among the military will “disappear” by itself when we have no problems in the war. Because people basically felt the need to change their opinion. When you are conditionally sitting in a trench, and 50 meters away from you sits a Russian who shouts “what the hell, hohol, surrender.” It’s just that on a subconscious level, disgust for this language appears, and you perceive it aggressively. It will simply disappear from the military over time and people will switch to the Ukrainian language. There is no need to do any kind of total Ukrainization either, because it can lead to resistance. Because we have such a Ukrainian mentality. If you are forced to do something, you will resist it as much as possible, just the opposite in principle.”
Historical and political factors play an important role in language conflicts, but they never lead society to a peaceful and successful existence, but only negatively affect the cohesion of citizens (especially during war), generate mistrust and intolerance, provoke people to illegal actions, creating the ground for conflict tension. In order to avoid these phenomena, one should always objectively evaluate facts and events, and not be manipulated. Let everyone think about what the stratification of our society, which is constantly arguing on the basis of ideology, language and religion, as well as the attitude to mobilization, can lead to. In addition, there are already many conflicts between those who did or did not go abroad, who fought or did not fight. Ukrainian society impressed the world with its cohesion at the beginning of the war, but it seems that now we are going in the wrong direction…
Oksana Ishchenko
