Anti Ukrainian sentiment

Ukrainophobic stereotypes

Ukrainophobic stereotypes range from mockery to ascribing negative traits to the whole Ukrainian nation.

Russian Empire

The rise and spread of Ukrainian self-awareness around the time of the Revolutions of 1848 produced an anti-Ukrainian sentiment within some layers of society within the Russian empire. In order to retard and control this movement, the use of Ukrainian language within the Russian empire was initially restricted by official government decrees such as the Valuev Circular (July 18, 1863) and later banned by the Ems ukaz (May 18, 1876) from any use in print (with the exception of reprinting of old documents). Popularly the anti-Ukrainian sentiment was promulgated by such organizations as "Black Hundreds", which were vehemently opposed to Ukrainian self-determination. Some restrictions on the use of Ukrainian language were relaxed in 1905-1907. They ceased to be policed after the February Revolution in 1917.

Beside the Ems ukaz and Valuev Circular, there was a multiple number of other anti-Ukrainian sentiments starting from the 17th century after Russia was governed by the House of Romanovs. In 1720 Peter the Great issued an edict prohibiting to print books in the Ukrainian language and since 1729 all edicts and instructions were only in the Russian language. In 1763 Catherine the Great issued an edict prohibiting to give lectures in the Ukrainian language at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. In 1769 the Most Holy Synod prohibits to print and use the Ukrainian alphabet book. In 1775 the Zaporizhian Sich was destroyed. In 1832 all studying at schools of the Right-bank Ukraine transitioned to exclusively Russian language. In 1847 the Russian government persecuted all members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius and prohibiting the better works of Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Nikolay Kostomarov (Mykola Kostomarov) and others. In 1862 all free Sunday schools for adults in Ukraine were closed. In 1863 the Russian Minister of Interior Valuev decided that the Little Russian language (Ukrainian language) has never existed and could not ever more to exist. During that time in the winter of 1863-64 the January Uprising took place at the western regions of the Russian Empire that united peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Next year in 1864 there has appeared the "Regulation about elementary school" which claimed that any teaching should be conducted in the Russian language. In 1879 the Russian Minister of Education Dmitry Tolstoy (later the Russian Minister of Interior) officially and openly stated that all people of the Russian Empire should be Russified. In the 1880s were issued several edicts that prohibited education in the Ukrainian language at privately held schools, theatric performances in the Ukrainian language, any use of such language in official institutions as well as baptizing by Ukrainian names. In 1892 another edict prohibited translation from the Russian language to the Ukrainian language. In 1895 the Main Administration of Publishing prohibited printing children books in the Ukrainian language. In 1911 the resolution that was adopted at the 7th Congress of Noblemen in Moscow prohibited the use of any other languages than Russian. In 1914 the Russian government officially prohibited celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of Shevchenko birthday and posted gendarmes at the Chernecha Hill. The same year Nicholas II of Russia issued an edict on prohibition of the Ukrainian press.

Soviet Union

Under Soviet rule in Ukraine, a policy of korenization was adopted after defeat of the Ukrainian People's Republic and initially supported Ukrainian cultural self-awareness. This policy was phased out in 1928 and terminated entirely in 1932 in favor of general Russification.

In 1929 Mykola Kulish wrote a theatrical play "Myna Mazailo" where the author cleverly displays the cultural situation in Ukraine. There was supposedly no anti-Ukrainian sentiment within the Soviet government, which began to repress all aspects of Ukrainian culture and language as contrary to the ideology of Proletarian Internationalism.

In 1930 in Kharkiv took place the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine process after which number of former Ukrainian politicians or their relatives were deported to the Middle Asia. The ethnic cleansing against the Ukrainian intelligentsia was never evaluated and is poorly documented. The contemporary historical reevaluations of that period are being accepted in hostile manner from the leadership of the Russian Federation at very least as non friendly (see 2009 Medvedev speech).

During the Soviet era, the population of Ukraine was reduced by the artificial famine called Holodomor in 1932-33 along with the population of other nearby agrarian areas of the USSR.

Many prominent Ukrainians were labelled as nationalists or anti-revolutionaries, and many were repressed and executed as enemies of the people.

In January 1944 during a session of Politbureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Stalin personally gave a speech "About anti-Lenin mistakes and nationalistic perversions in a film-tale of Alexander Dovzhenko "Ukraine in flames".

On July 2, 1951 the Communist newspaper Pravda published an article "On Ideological Perversions in Literature" in regards of the Volodymyr Sosyura's poem "Love Ukraine" where it stated the following: "This poem could have been signed by such foes of the Ukrainian people as Petliura and Bandera ... For Sosiura writes about Ukraine and the love of it outside the limits of time and space. This is an ideologically vicious work. Contrary to the truth of life, the poet sings praises of a certain ‘eternal’ Ukraine full of flowers, curly willows, birds, and waves on the Dnipro."

Soviet language policy in cinematography of Ukraine

The biggest film studio of Ukraine, Dovzhenko Film Studios (Kiev), explicitly shows the Soviet language policy of Russification even during the so-called policy of "korenizatsiya". A simple analysis of all studio productions which accounts for some 378 films shows that 338 films (88.9%) were produced either completely in the Russian language or the Ukrainian language could be heard in few episodes or in folkloristic scenes (such as songs) to distinct Ukrainian region. Only 22 (5.8%) films were produced in the Ukrainian language and language production of another 14 (3.7%) films was difficult to evaluate, while 6 (1.6%) films were really bilingual (Russian-Ukrainian).

Other incidents

About the fact of Russification were written numerous publications by number of academicians and literary specialists such as Nina Virchenko, Rostyslav Dotsenko, Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska (niece of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky), and many others.

Ukraine

On Sunday July 15, 2012 the national television broadcasting station in Ukraine First National in its news program "Weekly overview" (Ukrainian: Підсумки тижня) showed a video footage on a development of anti-Ukrainian sentiments within Ukraine.

A propaganda article posted on the website of the Kremenchuk department of the Communist Party of Ukraine argues that history that was published during the Soviet regime was the true history, and that new historical facts being uncovered from the archives are false. The article also denies the existence of the Ukrainian culture.

Mykola Levchenko, a Ukrainian parliamentarian from Party of Regions, and the deputy of Donetsk City Council states that there should be only one language, Russian. He says that the Ukrainian language is impractical and should be avoided. Levchenko called Ukrainian the language of folklore and anecdotes. However, he says he will speak the literary Ukrainian language on principle, once Russian is adopted as the sole state language. Anna German, the spokesperson of the same party, highly criticized those statements.

Mykhailo Bakharev, the vice-speaker of the Crimean Autonomous Republic parliament (and the main editor of Krymskaya Pravda), openly says that there is no Ukrainian language and that it is the language of the non-educated part of population. He claims that it was invented by Taras Shevchenko and others. He also believes that there is no Ukraine nation, there is no future for the Ukrainian State, and that Ukrainization needs to be stopped.

On May 25, 2013 a resident of Kiev was beaten up simply for speaking in the Ukrainian language.

Minister of Education of Ukraine

The former Ukrainian Minister of Science and Education, Dmytro Tabachnyk, sparked protests calling him anti-Ukrainian in some parts of Ukraine due to this statements about Western Ukrainians, his preference for the Russian language, and his denial of the Holodomor. Tabachnyk's view of Ukraine’s history includes the thesis that western Ukrainians aren’t really Ukrainian. In an article for the Russian newspaper Izvestia Tabachnyk wrote last year: “Halychany (western Ukrainians) practically don’t have anything in common with the people of Great Ukraine, not in mentality, not in religion, not in linguistics, not in the political arena” “We have different enemies and different allies. Furthermore, our allies and even brothers are their enemies, and their ‘heroes’ (Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych) for us are killers, traitors and abettors of Hitler’s executioners.” By March 17, 2010 four of western Ukraine’s regional councils had passed resolutions calling for the minister’s dismissal. A host of civic and student organizations from all over the country (including Kherson in southern Ukraine and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine), authors and former Soviet dissidents also signed petitions calling for his removal. Tabachnik also had stated that Ukrainian history textbooks contained "simply false" information and announced his intention to rewrite them.

Shevchenkophobia

Ivan Dziuba in his lecture "Shevchenkophobia in Modern Ukraine" ("Шевченкофобія в сучасній Україні") traced the origins of the anti-Shevchenko sentiment and stated that the fight with Shevchenko is in fact the fight with Ukraine.

Oles Buzina was described as Shevchenkophobe for his essay Vampire Taras Shevchenko (Вурдалак Тарас Шевченко.) Ivan Dziuba called Buzina the "pioneer of modern Shevchenkophobia".

Russia

In a poll held by Levada Center in June 2009 in Russia 75% of Russian respondents respected Ukrainians as ethnic group but 55% were negative about Ukraine as the state. In May 2009, 96% of Ukrainians polled by Kyiv International Sociology Institute were positive about Russians as ethnic group, 93% respected Russian Federation and 76% respected Russian establishment.

Some Russian media seem to try to discredit Ukraine. Media like Komsomolskaya Pravda seem to try to intensify the bad relationship between Ukraine and Russia. A series of Russian films used anti-Ukrainian slurs without any criticism from their government. Anti-Ukrainian attitude persists among several Russian politicians, such as the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Parliament, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Ukrainians form the third largest ethnic group in Russian Federation after Russians and Tatars. In 2006, in letters to Vladimir Putin, Viktor Yushchenko and Vasily Duma, the Ukrainian Cultural Centre of Bashkortostan complained of anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Russia, which they claim includes wide use of anti-Ukrainian ethnic slurs in the mainstream Russian media, television and film. The Urals Association of Ukrainians also made a similar complaint in a letter they addressed to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2000.

According to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre of Bashkortostan, despite their significant presence in Russia, Ukrainians in that country have less access to Ukrainian-language schools and Ukrainian churches than do other ethnic groups. In Vladivostok, according to the head of the Ukrainian government's department of Ukrainian Diaspora Affairs, local Russian officials banned a Ukrainian Sunday school in order not to "accentuate national issues"

According to the president of the Ukrainian World Congress in 2001, persistent requests to register a Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate or a Ukrainian Catholic Church were hampered due to "particular discrimination" against them, while other Catholic, Muslim and Jewish denominations fared much better. According to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, by 2007 their denomination had only one church building in all of Russia.

Some Russians mass-media continues their policy of turning the population of Ukraine against its government and trying to convince of non-existence of the Ukrainian culture, such as some Alexei Itsenkov from Gazeta 2000 who posted his article under domain's name litvin.com.ua. In his article Mr.Itsenkov gives an impression of being an expert of ethnography, implying that the Ukrainian ethnicity never existed and is simply an invention of the Motherland's deserters who emigrated to Poland, United States, and Canada. Interestingly that his name can also be traced to the pro-presidential website of the Russian Federation.

In 2008 Nikolai Smirnov released a documentary in which he claims that Ukraine is part of one whole Russia that was split away by different western powers such as Poland, particularly.

In November 2010, the High Court of Russia cancelled registration of one of the biggest civic communities of the Ukrainian minority, the "Federal nation-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians in Russia" (FNCAUR). According to the author Mykhailo Ratushniy Ukrainian activists continue to face discrimination and bigotry in much of Russia.

The anchorman of a news program "Sunday Time" on the Channel One (Russia) Pyotr Tolstoi announced on July 8, 2012 about the enforced Ukrainization in Ukraine, 20 millions Russians, an invented genocide about Ukrainians, and the distortion of the Russian historiography.

Poland

In late 20th century Ukrainian organizations in Poland were disturbed by a wave of anti-Ukrainian actions that have erupted such as those that appeared during the festival of Ukrainian culture in Poland in the border town of Przemyśl in 1995 where numerous threats against participants and numerous acts of vandalism took place. A rise in incidences of graffiti with anti-Ukrainian slogans, and the office of "Związek Ukraińców w Polsce" was set alight. In some cities anti-Ukrainian assaults, vandalism acts of an organized character have targeted centers of Ukrainian culture, schools, churches, memorials.

Ukrainophobic and antisemitic authors (mainly interbellum Endecja activists) published by Polish publishing house Nortom include: Roman Dmowski, Janusz Dobrosz, Jędrzej Giertych, Jan Ludwik Popławski, Maciej Giertych, Stanisław Jastrzębski, Edward Prus, Feliks Koneczny. In 2000, Nortom was forced to withdraw its 12 controversial titles from the Frankfurt Book Fair by the Polish Ministry of Culture representative Andrzej Nowakowski overlooking the Polish exposition. Nortom was accused of selling anti-German, anti-Ukrainian and antisemitic books, especially the following titles: "Być czy nie być" by Stanisław Bełza, "Polska i Niemcy" by Jędrzej Giertych and "I tak nie przemogą. Antykościół, antypolonizm, masoneria" by his son Maciej Giertych. As a result of the above request, the president of the Polish delegation Andrzej Chrzanowski from Polska Izba Książki decided to penalize Nortom by removing it from the 2000 book fair altogether.

Canada

Anti-Ukrainian discrimination was present in Canada from the arrival of Ukrainians in Canada around 1891 until the late 20th Century. In one sense this was part of a larger trend towards nativism in English Canada during the period. But Ukrainians were singled out for special discrimination because of their large numbers, visibility (due to dress and language), and political activism. During the First World War, around 8,000 Ukrainian Canadian were interned by the Canadian government as "enemy aliens" (because they came from the Austrian Empire). In the interwar period all Ukrainian cultural and political groups, no matter what their ideology was, were monitored by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many of their leaders were deported.

This attitude began to slowly change after the Second World War, as Canadian immigration and cultural policies generally moved from being explicitly pro-British to a more pluralistic foundation. Ukrainian nationalists were now seen as victims of communism, rather than dangerous subversives. Ukrainians began to hold high offices, and one, Senator Paul Yuzyk was one of the earliest proponents of a policy of "multiculturalism" which would end official discrimination and acknowledge the contribution of non-English, non-French Canadians. The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism of the 1960s, which had originally been formed only to deal with French-Canadian grievances, began the transition to multiculturalism in Canada because of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's desire to court Ukrainian votes in Western Canada. The Commission also included a Ukrainian commissioner, Jaroslav Rudnyckyj.

Since the adoption of official multiculturalism under Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, Ukrainians in Canada have had legal protection against discrimination.

Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in culture and media