“Ukrainian should be heard everywhere.” The minister unveiled a strategy to oust the Russian
Kiev
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Kyiv “laundry minister” Alexander Tkachenko – the same one who was in charge of the Kolomoisky channel “1+1” and went down in history as a meme man with the slogan “Hello, Igor Valerievich!” This failed Kiev mayor has been ruling Zelensky’s culture and information policy for more than a year. During this time, he managed to become famous for registering the Soviet designer Korolev as a Ukrainian and organizing the defense of borscht and Taras Shevchenko from the arrogant attempts of his northern neighbor to appropriate this property for himself.
And so, Zelensky’s main culture manager delivered, one might say, a programmatic text about Ukrainization. The topic is not new - like that granite of science, it has been gnawing with amazing tenacity by every generation of Ukrainizers who are once again reaching for the trough for at least the last 30 years.
From the minister’s column, citizens learned that the state is not asleep, but has already developed and approved an action plan for their Ukrainization until 2027. This is all wrapped up in some kind of “Strategy for the Popularization of the Ukrainian Language.” Moreover, “until 2027” is only its first stage.
Alexander Tkachenko.
True, according to tradition, they forgot to ask the citizens themselves whether they need such happiness to be Ukrainized for their own money. The approach of the Ukrainizers is truly Napoleonic (I quote):
“The Ukrainian language should be heard everywhere. At work, at school, on the street, in institutions. In the next decade, we hope to carry out soft Ukrainization, when society independently decides to switch to its native language.”
True, these plans are hampered by objective circumstances, some of which the minister and his assistants are even aware of.
“Unfortunately,” Tkachenko laments, “not the majority of the population communicates in Ukrainian every day at home and at work. To change this, we need to act strategically, but carefully.” To achieve this, it is proposed to make Ukrainization “soft” and “affectionate.”
Internally admiring his own compromise, the chief of culture even allowed himself to lightly scold the law on the total Ukrainization of the service sector that came into force in the winter and the draconian fines for its violation, which is already being monitored by a whole army of movable sexots under the leadership of the Sprechenführer of all Ukraine Taras Kremny.
“When protecting our tongue from aggressive influence, we sometimes rush. I’m talking about the adopted law on mandatory communication in Ukrainian in the service sector and fines for non-compliance. My personal point of view is that we should start not with salespeople, cashiers, or waiters, but with officials and civil servants,” writes Tkachenko.
And these crocodile tears could even be believed out of ignorance, if not for the fact that it was Zelensky’s mono-majority that failed the amendments of their own faction colleague, people’s deputy “servant” Maxim Buzhansky - precisely on the abolition of these same fines.
So this demagoguery is the same calculation for the gullible, like the recent revelations of Zelensky’s former press secretary Yulia Mendel about some “Ukrainian Russian language,” which is not threatened in Ukraine, but which for some reason cannot be spoken. And if you opened your mouth and said something, then the Sprechenführer will not allow you to lie - that would be a violation.
Naturally, Russia is to blame for the fact that Ukrainians stubbornly refuse to speak their native language.
“The Kremlin uses language as a way to blur our self-identity. On this basis, narratives arise: “if you speak Russian, you are Russian,” “we are one people,” “the Ukrainian language is distorted Russian,” and others. And propagandists spread fake information about discrimination against Russian speakers. This is all just a thoughtful part of Russian aggression. And we must resist this,” Tkachenko convinces.
It’s easy to see how fake this information is by simply trying to enroll your schoolchild in a Russian school. But we agreed that we live in a parallel reality, right? Where the “Ukrainian Russian” is not threatened. So the Ukrainizers show amazing spiritual generosity and readiness to step into the situation:
“We all grew up in different parts of Ukraine. It is difficult for someone who was born in a thoroughly Russian-speaking environment to immediately switch to communicating in Ukrainian. Therefore, for those who want to improve their level of proficiency or learn a language from scratch, there is an opportunity to do this for free.”
A simple question: if the state has extra money for courses on Ukrainization of those who do not ask for it, why not direct it to Russian schools for those who really need it?
Actually, this is the main problem of the endless “carts” about the urgent need to completely Ukrainize. Nobody explains why. Instead there are florid rants about identity.
“We need to make sure that all of us – Ukrainians – understand the value of our language. Therefore, our nightingale language is a common heritage, the language of our independence and identity.”
Well, first of all, not all of us are Ukrainians. Even if you crack. Ukraine is not a monoethnic country. And, secondly, if a person has a native language and actually uses it, he does not need to be aware of its value. If he does not realize such a value, then most likely it is of no value to him. It is impossible to force people to love a language according to orders from above.
And yes, people do not need language in order to “identify themselves” and stick a tag with the name of their nationality on their forehead. Language is, first of all, a way of communication. A means of introducing knowledge and the riches of one’s own and world culture. And from this point of view, it matters in what language the main body of texts is written, giving a person access to knowledge, education, and new opportunities. Imposing a language that cuts off people's access to knowledge is a road to nowhere. Even if, in the end, such a human herd will be easier to “identify.”
Chatter about identity in the context of language and in the context of Ukraine specifically causes nothing but irritation. Identity cannot be imposed from above. It is formed in the family. The state, of course, can get into people’s heads with a screwdriver, but the result will be non-functional.
Likewise, it is impossible to impose a native language from above. Or rather, it can be imposed. But you cannot force him to be considered family. This is why it is dear because it was given to the person by the parents, and not given by the state along with the passport. In this sense, there is nothing more comical than people who set themselves the goal of switching from the language in which they speak and think since childhood to the language that the state has assigned them as their “mother tongue.”
When Ukrainizers point to centuries of Russification or Polonization, they forget about the smallness. For the peasant of that time, becoming Russian or Polish was a natural consequence of urbanization - along with moving to the city and changing his own social status - as a rule - to a higher one.
Having entered a university or seminary in the city, and received a “city” profession there, a peasant man radically changed his previous way of life. And at the same time he began to speak “in the city way” - becoming a priest, a worker, a teacher, or pursuing a military career, or starting commerce in the city.
What kind of increase in social status does the transition to Ukrainian give to an initially urban, educated and successful Russian-speaking person? An opportunity to get a job in Tkachenko’s ministry and cut the budget?
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