History of the Russian language in Ukraine
The first known mention of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine refer to a small ethnic sub-group of Russians known as the
Russian migration
The first waves of Russian settlers onto what became Ukrainian territory came in the late 16th century to the area known as
More
The 19th century saw a dramatic increase in the urban Russian population in Novorossiya and other parts which are now Ukraine, as ethnic Russian settlers moved into and populated the newly industrialised and growing towns. At the beginning of the 20th century, Russians were the largest ethnic group in almost all large cities within Ukraine's modern borders, including the following: Kyiv (54.2%), Kharkiv (63.1%), Odesa (49.09%), Mykolaiv (66.33%), Mariupol (63.22%), Luhansk, (68.16%), Kherson (47.21%), Melitopol (42.8%), Yekaterinoslav (current Dnipro), (41.78%), Yelisavetgrad (current Kropyvnytskyi) (34.64%), Simferopol (45.64%), Yalta (66.17%), Kerch (57.8%), Sevastopol (63.46%).[5] The Ukrainian migrants who settled in these cities entered a Russian-speaking milieu (particularly with Russian-speaking administration) and needed to adopt the Russian language.
Adoption of Russian language
With the gradual urbanization of Society in the late 19th century, Ukrainian migrants from rural areas who settled in the cities entered a Russian-speaking milieu. With all State educational instruction and cultural establishments using Russian many Ukrainians were forced to use the Russian language.
The
While officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union, Russian was in practice in a privileged position. The Ukrainian language was often frowned upon or quietly discouraged, which led to the gradual decline in its usage.[citation needed]
In independent Ukraine, although Russian is not an official language of the country, it continues to hold a privileged position and is widely spoken, in particular in regions of Ukraine where Soviet Russification policies were the strongest, notably most of the urban areas of the east and south.
In 1994 a referendum took place in the Donetsk Oblast and the Luhansk Oblast, with around 40% supporting the Russian language gaining status of an official language alongside Ukrainian, and for the Russian language to be an official language on a regional level; however, the referendum was annulled by the Kyiv government.[8]
References
- ^ F.D. Klimchuk, About ethnolinguistic history of Left Bank of Dnieper (in connection to the ethnogenesis of Goriuns). Published in "Goriuns: history, language, culture" Proceedings of International scientific conference, (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, February 13, 2004)
- ^ a b Росіяни [Russians] (in Ukrainian). Congress of National Communities of Ukraine. 2004. Archived from the original on 19 May 2007.
- ^ a b Display Page
- ISBN 978-0-8020-8390-6. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ISBN 966-7007-60-X
- ISBN 963-9241-60-1.
- ^ Magoscy, R. (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- ^ http://thekievtimes.ua/society/372400-donbass-zabytyj-referendum-1994.html [dead link]