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The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine pp 83–110Cite as

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Regulating Minority Languages in Ukraine’s Educational System: Debate, Legal Framework and Implementation

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Abstract

The chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of policies on minority languages in Ukraine’s educational system, and in public debate, from 1991 to the present, combining legal analysis with the analysis of media discourses. Finding high politicization of the language-in-education issue in Ukraine, it maps key trajectories for the future course of Ukraine’s policies as to language in education.

Keywords

  • Language
  • Education
  • Media debate
  • Venice Commission
  • Ukraine

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Andrew Wilson, The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 2–5.

  2. 2.

    See Karina V. Korostelina, Mapping national identity narratives in Ukraine, Nationalities Papers (The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity) 41 (2013): 293–315. For a recent example of the analysis of politicization of regional diversity in Ukraine, see E. Giuliano, Is the risk of ethnic conflict growing in Ukraine?, Foreign Affairs (2020). https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2019-03-18/risk-ethnic-conflict-growing-ukraine (accessed 9 March 2020).

  3. 3.

    On the OSCE conceptualization of the ‘crisis in and around Ukraine’, see https://www.osce.org/ukrainecrisis (accessed 9 March 2020).

  4. 4.

    For an overview of Russia’s rhetoric concerning the protection of Russian-speakers in the context of its annexation of Crimea, see Anton Bebler, Crimea and the Russian–Ukrainian conflict, Romanian Journal of International Affairs 15:1 (2015): 35–54.

  5. 5.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrains’koi Radians’koi Sozialistychnoi Respubliky, Zakon UkrSSR Pro Movy v Ukrains’kii RSR’ [On Languages in Ukrainian RSR] № 8312–11, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady UkSSR, 28 October 1989, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/8312-11 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  6. 6.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy Pro Zasady Derzhavnoi Movnoi Polityky [On the Foundations of State Language Policy] № 5029-VI, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 3 July 2012, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/5029-17 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  7. 7.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy ‘Pro Osvitu’ [On Education] № 2145–VIII, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 5 April 2017, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  8. 8.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy, Pro Zabezpechennia Funkzionuvannia Ukrain’skoi Movy Yak Derzhavnoi [On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as a State Language] № 2704–VIII, 25 April 2019, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  9. 9.

    Volodymyr Kulyk, Ideologies of Language Use in Post-Soviet Ukrainian Media, International Journal of the Sociology of Language 201: 79.

  10. 10.

    Marianne W. Jørgensen and Louise Phillips, Diskursanalyse som teori og metode (Roskilde: Roskilde Universitets forlag, 2006).

  11. 11.

    Teun A. Van Dijk, Editorial: Applied Discourse Studies, Discourse and Society 8 (1997): 451–452.

  12. 12.

    Marthe H. Myhre and Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, ‘The State Cannot Help Them All’. Russian Media Discourse on the Inclusion of Non-State Actors in Governance, East European Politics 32 (2016): 192–214.

  13. 13.

    Ibid. See also Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Substitution in Sápmi: Metagovernance and Conflicts over Representation in Regional Indigenous Governance, in Sabine Kropp, Aadne Aasland, Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jørn Holm-Hansen, and Johannes Schuhmann, eds., Governance in Russian Regions: A Policy Comparison (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

  14. 14.

    The ‘Opposition Platform – For Life’ (Opozycijna Platforma – Za Zhyttia) was registered on 5 December 1999 as an All-Ukrainian Union ‘Centre’. It comprises the parties ‘Opozycijny Bloc’ (‘Opposition Bloc’), led by Yuriy Boyko) and ‘Za Zhyttia’ (‘For Life’), led by Vadym Rabinovych.

  15. 15.

    Hereby it is important to note that the activities of 112.UA TV channel were banned in terms of sanctions against an M.P. Taras Kozak on 3 February 2021, already after this study was finalized. For more information about these sanctions, please visit: https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/3183500-nacrada-povidomila-112-zik-i-newsone-pro-neobhidnist-vikonuvati-risenna-rnbo-sodo-sankcij.html (accessed 1 March 2021).

  16. 16.

    See n. 5 supra.

  17. 17.

    National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Institute of History, ‘Perebudova’, n.d., http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?&I21DBN=EIU&P21DBN=EIU&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=eiu_all&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=TRN=&S21COLORTERMS=0&S21STR=Perebudova (accessed 3 April 2020).

  18. 18.

    L. Deshchynskyi, Natsionalno-vyzvolnyi Rukh v Ukraini u 80-h rr. 20go Stolittia [National Freedom Movement in Ukraine in the 1980s], Journal of Lviv Polytechnic National University 612 (2008): 5.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., p. 6.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., p. 7.

  21. 21.

    István Chernicsko and Anikó Beregszaski, Different States, Same Practices: Visual Construction of Language Policy on Banknotes in the Territory of Present-Day Transcarpathia, Language Policy 18 (2018): 269–293.

  22. 22.

    Volodymyr Kulyk, Constructing Common Sense: Language and Ethnicity in Ukrainian Public Discourse, Ethnic and Racial Studies 29 (2006): 310.

  23. 23.

    Statystyka.in.ua, Ukrainian Schools, n.d., http://statistika.in.ua/mova2001/ukrainska_v_shkolah (accessed 3 April 2020).

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Ibid.

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    P. Lopushynsky, Zabezpechennia konstytutsiinoho statusu derzhavnoi movy u vyshchii shkoli Ukrainy sohodennia yak nalezhna perspektyva movlennie v fakhovoi praktyky [Ensuring the Constitutional Status of State Language in Contemporary Higher Educational Establishments of Ukraine as a Necessary Future of Professional Linguistic Practice], Derzhavne Upravlinnya: Teoriya I Praktyka [Public Management: Theory and Practice] 1 (2006): 4.

  29. 29.

    Ksyusha Savoskina, Yak Rosyiskomovni Shkoly v Ukraini Budut’ Perehodyty na Ukrain’sku [How Russian Language Schools in Ukraine Will Switch to Ukrainian], 14 February 2020, https://hromadske.ua/posts/yak-rosijskomovni-shkoli-v-ukrayini-budut-perehoditi-na-ukrayinsku.

  30. 30.

    See note 6 supra.

  31. 31.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy ‘Pro Vyshchu Osvitu’ [On Higher Education] № 1556–VII, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 1 lypnia 2014, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-18 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  32. 32.

    Mikhail Suslov, ‘Russian World Concept’: Post-Soviet Geopolitical Ideology and the Logic of ‘Spheres of Influence’, Geopolitics 23 (2018): 330–331.

  33. 33.

    Council of Europe, The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, n.d., https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages (accessed 3 April 2020).

  34. 34.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy Pro ratyfikatsiiu Konventsii pro zakhyst prav liudyny I osnovopolozhnykh svobod 1950 roku, Pershoho protokolu ta protokoliv N 2, 4, 7ta 11 do Konventsii № 475/97–BP, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 17 July 1997, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/475/97-%D0%B2%D1%80 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  35. 35.

    Larysa Masenko, “Russkii mir” i “Movnyi Zakon” Kivalova-Kolesnichenka. Yak Tse Stalosya? (hronologiya) [“Russian World and the Kivalov-Kolesnichnko Law”, How Did This Happen?], Radio Svoboda, 27 November, 2016, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/28141317.html (accessed 01 March 2021).

  36. 36.

    Yuliya Tyshchenko, Mova yak dim buttia… Pidmurky ‘movnykh suverenitetiv’ u ploshchyni rehionalnoi polityky [Language as a home to being….The foundations of ‘language sovereignties’ in the regional policy context], Ukrayinska Pravda, 16 May 2006, https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/articles/2006/05/16/4399669/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  37. 37.

    Russkiy Poluchil Status na Luhanshchyne, Ukrayinska Pravda, 27 May 2011 https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2011/05/27/6247043/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  38. 38.

    See note 35 supra.

  39. 39.

    Vitalii Boichuk, Zakon Kivalova-Kolesnichenka yak Zlochyn I Provokatsiia [Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Law as a Crime and Provocation’], Ukrayinska Pravda, 1 March 2018, https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2018/03/1/7173266/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  40. 40.

    Aleksandr Gorobets, A Chto Za Figovym Listkom Evropejskoj Khartii? [What Is Behind the Fig Leaf of the European Charter?], Ukrayinska Pravda, 17 July 2012, https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/columns/2012/07/17/6968911/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  41. 41.

    For Radio Svoboda see, for instance, note 35 supra. For Deutsche Welle: Yazykovoj zakon na Ukraine: bez posledstviy, no so vzryvnym potenzialom [Language Law in Ukraine: Without Consequences, but with an Explosive Potential], Deutsche Welle, 17 November 2016, https://bitly.su/EbNxci (accessed 3 April 2020).

  42. 42.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Konstytuziya Ukrainy [Constitution of Ukraine], Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 28 June 1996, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254%D0%BA/96-%D0%B2%D1%80 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  43. 43.

    DGAP, ‘Russkiy mir: Russian world’, n.d., https://dgap.org/en/events/russkiy-mir-russian-world (accessed 3 April 2020).

  44. 44.

    See, for instance: Volodymyr Ogryzko, ‘Manifest ‘Russkogo mira’. Chitajte, zavidujte! [Manifest of the Russian World: Read, be envious], Ukrayinska Pravda, 3 April 2012, https://blogs.pravda.com.ua/authors/ogrysko/4f7ad24fc9f55/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  45. 45.

    See note 35 supra; Lyudmyla Vannek, Zakon Kivalova-Kolesnichenka zakhyshchaie ‘Russkiy mir’ v Ukraini – pysmennytsia Larysa Nitsoi [Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Law protects ‘Russian World’ in Ukraine – writer Larysa Nitsoi], Radio Svoboda, 14 December 2016, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/28176465.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  46. 46.

    Mykola Romaniuk, Zakon ne dvoh, a trioh ‘k’: Kremlya, Kivalova, Kolesnichenka’ skasovano: shcho dali?’[The law not of two, but three ‘k’: ‘Kremlin, Kivalov, Kolesnichenko’ Is Abolished: What Is Next?, Ukrinform, n.d., https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/2413727-zakon-ne-dvoh-a-troh-k-kremlakivalovakolesnicenka-skasovano-so-dali.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  47. 47.

    M. M. Zerkal, Osvita Natsionalnykh Menshyn v Ukraini (1990-2000s) [Education of National Minorities in Ukraine (1990–2000)], Ukrainian Historical Journal 2013/2: 121–135, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/87388273.pdf (accessed 3 April 2020).

  48. 48.

    See ‘Verkhovna Rada Repeals Law on Minority Languages’, Radio Svoboda, 23 February 2014, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/25274216.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  49. 49.

    See note 43 supra.

  50. 50.

    Konstituczi`jnyi`j Sud Ukrayini [Constitutional Court of Ukraine], Rishennyau spravi` za konstituczi`jnim podannyam 57 narodnikh deputati`v Ukrayini shhodo vi`dpovi`dnosti` Konstituczi`yi Ukrayini (konstituczi`jnosti`) Zakonu Ukrayini, Pro zasadi derzhavnoyi movnoyi poli`tiki [Decision on a case based on the Constitutional Appeal by 57 MPs of Ukraine regarding conformity with the Constitution (Constitutionality) of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Foundations of State Language Policy’], 2018, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/v002p710-18 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  51. 51.

    See notes 7 and 8 supra.

  52. 52.

    V. Medvedchuk, Politiku diskriminaczii russkogo yazy`ka vozglavili president Zelenskij i ego ministry [The Policy of Discriminating Against the Russian Language Is Led by President Zelensky and His Ministers], 112 Ukraine, 7 October 2019, https://112.ua/mnenie/politiku-diskriminacii-russkogo-yazyka-vozglavili-prezident-zelenskiy-i-ego-ministry-510214.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  53. 53.

    V. Nimchenko, Diskriminacziya grazhdan po yazy`kovomu priznaku kak predatel`stvo naczional`ny`kh interesov i diskriminacziya gosudarstvennogo yazy`ka [Language-Based Discrimination Against Citizens as a Betrayal of National Interests and the Discrimination of State Language in Ukraine], 112 Ukraine, 8 April 2019, https://112.ua/mnenie/diskriminaciya-grazhdan-po-yazykovomu-priznaku-kak-predatelstvo-nacionalnyh-interesov-i-diskriminaciya-gosudarstvennogo-yazyka-487164.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  54. 54.

    Viktoriya Titova, Lingvoczid, naczionalisticheskaya isteriya I korrupcziya. Soczseti o yazy`kovomzakone’ [Linguicide, Nationalistic Hysteria and Corruption. Social Networks on the Language Law], Ukraina.ru, 26 April 2019, https://ukraina.ru/sn/20190426/1023463638.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  55. 55.

    Ukrayinska Pravda, V Rossii boyatsya, chto v Ukraine ne budet russkoyazy`chny`kh detej [Russia Is Afraid There Would Be no Russian-Speaking Children in Ukraine], Ukrayinska Pravda, 17 January 2020, https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2020/01/17/7237658/ (accessed 3 April 2020); A. Lubensky, Yazy`kovaya bomba’ zalozhena pod Ukrainu. Smozhet li ee obezvredit` Sovbez OON? [Language Bomb Is Planted in Ukraine. Can the UN Security Council Defuse It?’], Ukraina.ru, 16 July 2019, https://ukraina.ru/exclusive/20190716/1024263780.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  56. 56.

    Igor Konev, Zakon pro movu. Sprostovuyemo strashilki j perebri`khuvannya [Language Law: Refuting Horrors and Lies], Ukrayinska Pravda, 30 April 2019, https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2019/04/30/7213925/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  57. 57.

    Yaryna Busol, Chem Ukraine grozit dvuyazy` chie? [How Does Bilingualism Threaten Ukraine?], Ukrayinska Pravda, 24 April 2019, https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/columns/2019/04/24/7213380/ (accessed 3 April 2020).

  58. 58.

    Ibid.; see also note 35 supra.

  59. 59.

    See note 57 supra; see also: Radio Svoboda, Zakhi` dni` Reakczi`yi na Novij Movnij Zakon [Western Reactions to the New Language Law], Radio Svoboda, 26 April 2019, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/29904646.html (accessed 3 April 2020).

  60. 60.

    See note 57 supra.

  61. 61.

    Maksym Sydorzhevsky, Ugorshhyna ta Rumuni`ya oburylisya cherez novyj zakon pro osvitu v Ukrayini [Hungary and Romania Outraged at Education Law in Ukraine], Deutsche Welle, 8 September, https://www.dw.com/uk/yгopщинa-тa-pyмyнiя-oбypилиcя-чepeз-нoвий-зaкoн-пpo-ocвiтy-в-yкpaїнi/a-40410674 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  62. 62.

    István Csernicskó and Mihály Toth, The Right to Education in Minority Languages: Central European Traditions and the Case of Transcarpathia (Uzhgorod: AudorShark, 2019); János Fiala-Butora, The Controversy over Ukraine’s New Law on Education: Conflict Prevention and Minority Rights Protection as Divergent Objectives?, European Yearbook of Minority Issues 17:1 (2020): 233–261, https://doi.org/10.1163/22116117_01701011.

  63. 63.

    European Commission for Democracy through Law, Opinion on the Provisions of the Law on Education of 5 September 2017 № 902/2017, 11 December 2017, https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2017)030-e (accessed 3 April 2020).

  64. 64.

    Ibid., p. 13.

  65. 65.

    Ibid.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., p. 21.

  68. 68.

    Ibid., p. 25.

  69. 69.

    Ivan Toronchuk and Volodymyr Markovskyi, The implementation of the Venice Commission Recommendations on the Provision of the Minorities Language Rights in the Ukrainian Legislation, European Journal of Law and Public Administration 5 (2018): 59–60.

  70. 70.

    European Commission for Democracy through Law, Opinion on the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language № 960/2019, 9 December 2019, https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2019)032-e (accessed 3 April 2020).

  71. 71.

    Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, Zakon Ukrainy Pro Povnu Zagal’nu Seredniu Osvitu [On Full General Secondary Education] № 463-IX, Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, 16 January 2020, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/463-20 (accessed 3 April 2020).

  72. 72.

    See note 70 supra, p. 29.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., pp. 29–30.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., p. 9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Maryna Rabinovych

  2. OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Mikkel Berg-Nordlie

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIBR, OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Aadne Aasland

  2. Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Sabine Kropp

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Rabinovych, M., Berg-Nordlie, M. (2021). Regulating Minority Languages in Ukraine’s Educational System: Debate, Legal Framework and Implementation. In: Aasland, A., Kropp, S. (eds) The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine. Federalism and Internal Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80971-3_4

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