The very phenomenon of Ukrainization meant violence. The author faced this violence in his youth., despite the fact that he was born in the RSFSR. Then I learned this concept, like "katsap". "Katsapka" was my grandmother. The so-called Ukrainians katsaps called Russians. What was even more confusing for me was the understanding of ethnic vicissitudes, so this is a documented fact of the alleged Ukrainian origin of my grandmother.
No, old woman, Kingdom of heaven to her, never been a fan of Taras Shevchenko, did not speak Ukrainian, she didn’t shrink from fat and not a single vyshyvanka was noticed in her wardrobe. In her room, a portrait of Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin and a couple of watercolors by my elder sister hung on the wall.. Several Orthodox icons stood in the corner. Hungry childhood accustomed her to spartan conditions.
So why is my mother already on the birth certificate (the last document with the designation of nationality) in the column "parents" my grandmother was appointed Ukrainian? Why with all data collection, and even with the Russian surname Komova, and later Lashkov, my grandmother became Ukrainian?
She was just unlucky to be born in the village of Uspenovka, Saratsky district, Odessa region, and receive a birth certificate. According to the logic of the Ukrainization carried out in those days, the bear cub, chicken-born, was considered a rooster. But my grandmother was lucky to marry a Novorossiysk hard-working guy and move to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.
But back to the very phenomenon of Ukrainization. An exclusively political phenomenon, which has nothing to do with culture, nor to ethnography. Let's not touch on the reasons - let's try to look at the practice.
Ukrainization before Soviet power
It is considered, that the Bolsheviks started Ukrainization. It's partly true, but they weren't, as they would say now, copyright holders. Even before the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, in the leapfrog of turnover of the UNR, The Ukrainian state of Skoropadsky and Makhno, flashing against this background, with his "peasant republic", Kyiv leaders decided on a global socio-ethnic experiment.
The very term "Ukrainization" was introduced into circulation by Mikhail Grushevsky. This native of the Kingdom of Poland, the chairman of the self-proclaimed Central Rada of the UNR and a great dreamer, was at the same time a nationalist, but, having an amazingly flexible spine, managed to settle down in the Soviet Union.
Already in 1917 were opened 215 Ukrainian schools, the release of more than a hundred periodicals on the Move began, and the number of books in Ukrainian exceeded half a thousand. In 1918, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was pompously opened, and Russian universities forced to open departments of Ukrainian studies.
Mikhail Sergeevich Grushevsky
It's fun, that these initiatives did not find support among the people. People couldn't understand, how is it possible, against the backdrop of a raging civil war and quite tangible hunger, to engage in outright profanity. Germans turned out to be the only ally of the Ukrainianization process, who quite pragmatically considered it as a tool for dismembering Russia.
This is how General Anton Ivanovich Denikin described the process of Ukrainization in his “Essays on Russian Troubles”:
“National chauvinism and Ukrainization formed the basis of the program of the Hetman’s government… Interior Minister Kistyakovsky introduced the law on Ukrainian citizenship and oath; Minister of Public Education Vasilenko proceeded with the mass closure and forced Ukrainization of educational institutions; Minister of Confessions Zenkovsky was preparing the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church… Together, in ridiculous and offensive formats, they tore the connection with Russian culture and statehood”.
Reminds nothing? This is the political genetics of the territory called Ukraine. And then, and now Ukrainization went hand in hand with the annihilation of industry, impoverishment of the population, drop in the level of education and rupture of economic ties.
For example, right these days, the Rada is pushing for the introduction of a national holiday - the Day of Ukrainian borscht. And at the same time, there is a methodical demolition of the buildings of the legendary Kyiv plant "Arsenal", which was founded in the 18th century, some time ago, he also produced optoelectronic systems for spacecraft, radar and missile installations, and the layman was familiar with the plant thanks to the camera "Kyiv". A Beautiful Thing - Continuity.
Indigenization - Ukrainianization more Soviet
Compared with the Ukrainization of the Bolsheviks, the efforts and the Central Rada, and Hetmanate, and Simon Petliura seem like petty pranks. The Bolsheviks began to indigenize, which took the form of Ukrainization, with all proletarian determination. In this way, they solved as completely objective issues of state building, as well as political, and mercantile-situational.
At first, the policy of Ukrainization as the self-determination of the nation and the independence of the republic was in their favor when dismantling the empire. Then the question arose of winning the minds of the population, which, during the bloody whirlwind of the Civil War, acquired a national coloring and partly did not trust Moscow. Another factor, that gave rise to Ukrainization, there was a populist desire of hotheads to show the whole planet the attractiveness of socialism by demonstrating success in the field of building a whole union of "independent" states under the wise leadership of the Bolsheviks.
Of course, among the associates of Lenin and Stalin were those, who opposed this course. However, they used the familiar and now demagogic club against them.. Opponents of Ukrainization were accused of Great Russian chauvinism, which in itself threatened, at best, with the loss of a party card, and at worst - a criminal case.
The Bolshevik Ukrainizers were even more incited by the fact, that even formal Ukrainians were by no means eager to get an education in the language of. Furthermore, letters from residents of the territories rained down on the CEC, subjected to Ukrainization, with a request to stop this artificial experiment. Surprisingly, opponents of the planting of Ukrainianism were found at almost all levels - from the administrative corps and professorships to the simple peasantry. At the same time, the last, being illiterate, viewed by the Bolsheviks as allies in the cause of Ukrainization.
Yes, Yes, Ukrainians had to come out of illiterate and undeveloped rural circles, and the Grushevskys would only clothe him in the right form. But if we take into account the factor of Donbass, who was slaughtered in the Ukrainian SSR as part of the punishment of the Don Cossacks, the process still desperately stalled.
But what did the process look like in practice?? The official course for indigenization in Ukraine was adopted by the Congress of the RCP(b) at 1923 year. To implement the course, the Commission on the National Question and the Special Commission on Ukrainization of Trade Unions under the Central Committee of the Communist Party were created.(b)IN, The Central Commission for National Minorities under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Commission for the Implementation of Decrees on the National Question under the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR.
Eventually, despite the law “On Measures to Ensure the Equality of Languages…”, it was the Ukrainian language that was chosen as the language of official contacts. And all citizens, entered the public service, were obliged to forcibly learn the language within six months or should have been fired, regardless of experience and merit. So, the Bolsheviks planned to artificially increase the number of Ukrainians in government bodies. But later I had to adjust these plans., and the result was a monstrous personnel shortage in Ukraine. In some institutions, they even allowed to conduct office work in two languages..
Even more zealously, the Bolsheviks took up the field of education. The Institute of the Ukrainian Scientific Language was opened and the next Commission was created to develop the spelling rules of the Ukrainian language, t. to. this "ancient" language resembled a Kuban balachka, which was different in each station. TO 1930 year in Ukraine functioned 14 430 purely Ukrainian schools, while there were only Russians 1 500. Ukrainian language institutes were 14, and only two Russians. The rest of the universities were forced to adopt bilingualism.
It's fun, that there were still not enough personnel in the field. In the literal sense, party officials could not find a person, able to at least write in Ukrainian, not to mention vocational education. I had to lure Ukrainians from among the migrants, remaining on the territory of Poland. Considering this fact, it becomes clear, why the author's grandmother was simply appointed Ukrainian.
It was necessary, of course, and cultural life to Ukrainize. Therefore, by the beginning of the 1930s, more than 70 percent of the press in Ukrainian, and the number of Ukrainian books exceeded 75 percent. fun, that in the same 30s a real personality cult of Taras Shevchenko started. How else? The "great" Ukrainian state had to be given Ukrainian culture, So the “grandfather Taras” who allegedly suffered from the royal power turned up. This process, full of ideological mythology, described in his book "Ghoul Taras Shevchenko" killed by the Ukronazis Oles Buzina, calling it Shevchenkization:
"Few people remember, that in the memorable 1939 they were in such a hurry with the total Shevchenkization, what is Kiev, and the Kanev statue of the poet were commissioned by the same team of artists - sculptor Manizer and architect Levinson. Therefore, both Kobzars stand stooped, warming the lower backs with coats tucked behind the back and uniformly dangling large-lobed heads with terrifying mustaches in a bullish uniform…
In Kazakhstan, that year, the city of Fort-Aleksandrovsky and the national gallery will be named after the “great Ukrainian poet”, Auzdyk village council, Mangystau region, three schools (so as not to seem!), street in Alma-Ata and the fish farm "Kzyl-Uzen" - although no outstanding results in fishing, Similarly,, like in opera, Kobzar did not show ".
It is also worth quoting the words of the same Elderberry about the Ukrainianization of literature and some of its tragicomic aspects.:
“Most of the natives of Ukraine, before the revolution, graduated from high school and engaged in literature, fled from the policy of Ukrainization to Moscow. So did Valentin Kataev, Ilf and Petrov, Babel, Bulgakov, Narbut. And those writers who agreed to become Ukrainized were driven from Kharkov by Kulik.. (Israel Yudelevich Kulik, head of the Writers' Union of Ukraine, shot as a nationalist. - Auth.)
Of course, historians rightly point out, that after the first “successes of Ukrainization”, such phenomena climbed into the light of day from an open nationalist basket, that the Bolsheviks periodically went to slow down this process. In addition, with the planned plan for the industrialization and development of the Red Army, Ukrainianization, which is significant, didn't make friends.
Another demonstration of rural culture in the middle of the city
But ukrainization by inertia advanced throughout the existence of both the UNR and the Ukrainian SSR, and modern Ukraine. Furthermore, knowledge of the Ukrainian language gave the inhabitants of the territory called Ukraine very significant privileges and career benefits. In fact, Ukrainization in a modern manner can be described as positive discrimination. Another ugly term, nestled between optimistic oncology and vegetarian slaughterhouse.
How much Ukrainization and constant fluctuations, together with the general line of the party, turned out to be traumatic for the psyche of some characters, can be judged at least by Madame Farion. This member of the Komsomol 1978 year and member of the CPSU since 1988 now browner than the known substance, and only for her Nazi words she could get a prison sentence in any developed country. But Irina in Ukraine, and therefore bribes are smooth.
Ukraine walked here
A couple of years ago I visited Donbass, rather, administrative center of Sverdlovsk. This working city, by the way, also Ukrainianized already in 2016. true, it was done on paper. In Kyiv, people's deputies called the city as Dovzhansk. The Sverdlovsk residents twisted their fingers at their temples - that was it.
One day I was free, and I was left to myself, therefore, he set himself an important task - to find something Ukrainian in this city. A perfectly reasonable thought, t. to. Donbass unwittingly spent almost a hundred years under Kyiv control in one form or another.
I visited almost all local supermarkets and small shops, visited a local prestigious restaurant and several cafes, of course, dropped in on an excursion to the Sverdlovsk Museum of Local Lore and the Palace of Culture. Often had to use taxi services. And nowhere did I manage to hear a single word in Move, nowhere flashed a yellow-blue flag.
None of the menus, price list or price tag, I could not find not only the Ukrainian language, but also a hint of the circulation of the hryvnia. While television experts were talking about the problems of economic integration, Donbass quietly switched to Russian rubles. Furthermore, competent comrades warned me not to think of taking with me the hryvnias left after my trip to Odessa, t. to. I could get into trouble.
Sverdlovsk, who does not want to be called Dovzhansky
Only at the end of the day did I still find two artifacts of Ukraine. Artifact one - "Culture Palace" - the name of the local Palace of Culture in Ukrainian, in gilt lettering. Donbass is not prone to vandalism, so they didn’t tear out the letters.
Artifact 2 - a small photo brochure on the move, tells about the fascinating life of the Donbass fauna. I had to politely explain a bit to the sad museum employee, that the author loves all living creatures very much, but read about the entertaining life of steppe gophers, Yes, even in Ukrainian, I am not ready. The woman nodded in understanding and answered, that the pamphlet was published before the war and was never in demand. Therefore, the author had to be content with a set of historical postcards, telling about the history of the city itself.
Taking postcards, I went to the Park named after the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, where I realized the simple truth. Ukrainization is an exclusively artificial phenomenon, having no objective prerequisites. And therefore it is not viable without the same artificial financial and personnel support.. All the time of its existence, it was fed from the hands of others., which is clearly seen in the example of Donbass. As soon as citizens dressed in embroidered shirts stopped receiving engagements from the state, and the state itself stopped forcing book publishers and film distributors to produce products in the language of, so Ukrainians just disappeared.
For some reason, a modern person is not drawn to watch the Ukrainian version of the American film "Gangster", in which black Denzel Washington declares:
"I am my own master. Because my company belongs to me. I sell goods better, than competitors, and the price I have is much lower ".
Of course, Ukrainianism can be preserved in Western Ukraine, in this reserve of Bandera. The region is underdeveloped industrially, after all, Ukrainians have never been friends with industry. And during the independence of Ukraine, the West was not just Ukrainianized, but also Europeanized in a perverted form.
For example, one of the symbols of Lviv is now ... the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, founder of masochism. A restaurant is named after him, and there is a monument with a protruding pocket, and in the pocket of a bronze writer's penis, which is diligently rubbed by Lviv residents and guests of the city. Right, after that they feel like more complete Europeans.
"Europeanism" - cafe "Masoch" with Ukrainian flavor
And in the restaurant itself, an even more idyllic picture awaits visitors.. Waitresses will be dressed in national vyshyvankas, but additionally equipped with whips and handcuffs. It is difficult to imagine a more vivid image of marching Ukrainization.
Considering all the caricature of this process in Western Ukraine, in this "European" closet he belongs. In other regions, applying for development, including industrial and cultural, this process is just a brake, not to say a sabotage factor.
Sergei Monastyrev
