Irina Zaykovskaya, Ph.D.
Visiting Research Scholar
Sociolinguistics Lab

Ukraine is a large and multilingual country, with Ukrainian and Russian especially dominating its
linguistic landscape for decades. However, not only are the statuses of these languages different
(i.e., Ukrainian being the official state language and Russian currently not having any formal
status), but the attitudes towards them among the Ukrainian people differ as well. Even before the
Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Ukrainians, including those from the Eastern,
historically considered Russian-speaking parts of the country, would demonstrate symbolic
preference for Ukrainian over Russian: for example, in a 2020 poll, only 21.8% of Eastern
Ukrainians admitted speaking Ukrainian at home but 44.3% of the same respondents named it as
their native language, which implies the view of one’s native language as a matter of choice
rather than a matter of chance. Now, Russian-speaking Twitter is getting flooded by tweets like “I
want lightning to strike me so that I forget the Russian language”. This talk will present an
overview of historical events and policies that led to the current linguistic situation in Ukraine as
compared to a few other post-Soviet countries, such as Belarus and Latvia. It will also attempt to
capture the ongoing shift in attitudes among Ukrainians, from recognizing Russian as the
language the enemies speak to perceiving it as the essence of the enemy.