The age factor in language practices and attitudes: continuity and change in Ukraine's bilingualism

This article analyzes inter-cohort differences and intra-cohort changes in language proficiencies, use patterns and attitudes in a society undergoing a radical political and cultural transformation. My analysis focuses on Ukraine, a country with an asymmetrical bilingualism where the new independent state mildly promotes the titular language but the formerly dominant Russian maintains an active presence in most social domains and individual repertoires. While confirming earlier findings on the small scale of age differences, this study detects the end of the inter-cohort shift toward Russian. Another important finding is that the apparent continuity with a slow drift toward the titular language in Ukraine as a whole conceals two radically different developments in the two geographical “halves” of the country. The study demonstrates an advantage of combining a synchronic analysis of inter-cohort differences with a diachronic analysis of intra-cohort changes.     

The Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Protesters and the Authorities in the Attempts at Colour Revolutions in Belarus 2001–2010

Information and communication technology have played an important role in the tactics of uprisings against non-democratic regimes worldwide. However, there has been little attention paid in studies so far of how authorities in those countries employ such information and communication technology. In this article we examine the evolution of such tactics as employed by one of the most ingrained authoritarian regimes—that of Belarus—during the decade 2001 to 2010. The political opposition's responses to the authorities' countermeasures are also investigated, followed by an analysis of the co-evolution of these opponents' tactics.     

Identity in Transformation: Russian-speakers in Post-Soviet Ukraine

Abstract

This essay examines the transformation of identity of Russian-speakers in independent Ukraine. Based on survey, focus groups and public discourse data, it explores the hierarchy of identities of those people who use predominantly Russian in their everyday lives and the meaning they attach to their perceived belonging to the Ukrainian nation. Although many scholars argued after the breakup of the USSR that Ukraine’s Russian-speakers would form into a community distinguished by its preferred language, the present analysis shows that they have instead been transformed from Soviet people into Ukrainians—and that without drastic changes in their language practice.     

Shedding Russianness,recasting Ukrainianness: the post-Euromaidan dynamics of ethnonational identifications in Ukraine

Abstract

Euromaidan and the subsequent Russian military intervention brought about a perceptible change in ethnonational identifications of Ukrainian citizens. Based on three nationwide surveys from various years, the present article seeks to measure this shift and explore its underlying factors and mechanisms. My analysis reveals considerable changes in ethnolinguistic identifications, practices of language use, and preferences regarding language policies of the state, which can be seen as a kind of bottom-up de-Russification, a popular drift away from Russianness. At the same time, I demonstrate that changes in identifications by nationality and native language are related to changes in the perceptions of these categories; that is, that they should be conceptualized as measuring people’s perceived belonging to both ethnic groups and civic nations. In other words, as people are shedding their Russianness in favor of Ukrainianness, they are also changing the meaning of being Ukrainian.     

Language Policy in the Ukrainian Media: Authorities,Producers and Consumers

This article deals with language policy in one crucial domain, the media. It treats language policy as the interaction between actions or inactions of the authorities, producers and consumers contributing to change or continuity of existing practices. It is argued that the main long-term contribution of all three actors, despite some notable changes, is the maintenance of the status quo characterised by the coexistence of Ukrainian and Russian with the predominance of the latter language. In particular, consumers mostly maintained their accustomed language preferences, although they did not resort to any protest actions when those preferences were disregarded.