"We've lost a generation." How Russia destroyed the Ukrainian language in Crimea

On January 31, the United Nations International Court of Justice issued a decision regarding Ukraine's 2017 lawsuit against Russia for violating the ICERD. All this time the court studied the materials of the parties. According to Krym.Reali, the Russian side actively tried to deny the arguments presented in the lawsuit and sent the denials to the court. However, she failed to refute the fact of violation of the rights of Crimean residents to education in the Ukrainian language, which has been destroyed on the peninsula for almost a decade.

 

Education in the Ukrainian language: less by 90 percent

 

The International Court of Justice of the United Nations drew attention to the significant decrease in the number of schoolchildren learning the Ukrainian language in Crimea since 2014.

"In the first year (after the illegal annexation of Crimea) there was a decrease of 80 percent, and in the following year by another 50 percent... Even considering the fact that there was a significant outflow of Ukrainian families to mainland Ukraine, the court does not consider this to be a justification for a sudden reduction in the scope of education by 90 percent," the court's decision states.

This conclusion refutes the statements of the Russian authorities who assure that the reduction of education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea is the result of objective processes - the lack of people willing to learn in their native language. All this time, the Russian authorities have been deliberately destroying education in the Ukrainian language on the peninsula under the guise of an alleged lack of interest in learning in the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian experts assure.

 

How the inhabitants of Crimea were Russified

Before the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, according to official data, almost 13,000 (more than seven percent) students were educated in the Ukrainian language in local schools. After the Russian annexation of the peninsula, the Russian authorities began to actively suppress the Ukrainian language from educational institutions. The most vivid example of this was the change of management and the subsequent re-profiling of the Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Simferopol. The only Ukrainian-speaking high school in Crimea has become a Russian-speaking school.

Already in the 2014-2015 school year. there have been significant changes in education in schools in Crimea, the Ukrainian center for civic education "Almenda" points out.

"There, the number of students in Ukrainian-language schools has decreased significantly - from 12,800 to 1,9000." And in the academic year 2015-2016. "the trend of decreasing education in the Ukrainian language to 0.5 percent continued," notes "Almenda".

 

The Russian authorities in Crimea explained this by the lack of people willing to be educated in the Ukrainian language. Because of this, many teachers of the Ukrainian language began to retrain and teach the Russian language.

Namely, such a trend is the result of pressure on parents and children from school administrations in Crimea, according to "Almenda" experts. Some parents did not hide the fact that their children should not study in their mother tongue. And the teachers stated that they could not hold classes in the Ukrainian language, because all the textbooks published in Ukraine were withdrawn before the beginning of the school year, and they were threatened with large fines for their arbitrary use.

Back in 2014, experts declared "artificial Russification of education" in Crimea. As a result, by 2019, there were no Ukrainian-language schools left on the peninsula, only five schools had classes in Ukrainian, and only eight classes in Ukrainian, the Crimean Human Rights Group reported.

And after Russia launched a planned military invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language was no longer taught in schools in Crimea, not even as an optional option, as it was in previous years, according to the Representation of the President of Ukraine in AR Crimea.

 

Language or security

 

The destruction of Ukrainian language classes in Crimea was facilitated by Russia's repressive policy towards the pro-Ukrainian population, says "Almenda" expert Oleg Ohredko.

"Since 2014, a hostile atmosphere has been created in Crimea around the Ukrainian language against the background of harsh persecution of people because of their pro-Ukrainian position. It is de facto forbidden to even celebrate Taras Shevchenko's birthday there. People who bring flowers to his monument were arrested. In such conditions, Crimeans have an instinct for self-preservation - they refuse to learn the Ukrainian language in order to preserve their safety and that of their children. Sometimes we notice such facts when children from the same class of the Crimean school came to the Ukrainian university and found out about it only when they came to study. That is, they hid the Ukrainian language for security reasons," he told Krym.Realia.

Efforts by the Russian authorities to organize Ukrainian-language education in the Crimean peninsula during this decade were a fiction, notes Oleg Ohredko. The consequences of that will be felt after the possible de-occupation of Crimea, he claims.

"We lost almost a generation in Crimea. This year, the last children who went to school under the Ukrainian authorities in Crimea are graduating. Others studied not only according to Russian standards, but in an environment hostile to Ukraine. There was a change in the identity of these children, which was accompanied by active militarization and the formation of an image of the enemy from Ukraine. This is a very big problem that we will face during the reintegration of Crimea into Ukraine," the expert pointed out.

 

"Crimeans will preserve Ukrainian identity"

 

Andriy Shchekun, an activist from Crimea, representative of the Regional Council of Ukrainians of Crimea (KRUK), has repeatedly stated that the Russian authorities are using "new approaches and tricks" to destroy Ukrainian-language education and Ukrainianism in general in Crimea. However, he is sure that Russia has not managed to completely destroy the Ukrainian identity of Crimeans in the decade that has almost passed.

 

"In almost 10 years, a lot has been destroyed in Crimea. Ukrainian schools, kindergartens and, in fact, education in the Ukrainian language were destroyed. It was done hundreds of years ago. But in Crimea it will not be possible to break the Ukrainian identity, spirit and will. As soon as we de-occupy Crimea, you will see how many people in Crimea will be willing to learn the Ukrainian language. Because the Ukrainian identity will be preserved primarily by those Ukrainians who remain on the peninsula," Andriy Shchekun told Krym.Realii.

In his opinion, the decision of the UN International Court of Justice should be the basis for other international procedures related to Russia's actions in Crimea, in order to restore the rights of the victims, including the payment of compensation.