Rivers returns from Kyiv with a better understanding of linguistic differences; recalls the Quebec referendum fondly.

By Ray Rivers

April 20, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

Canada has been a strong supporter of Ukraine. After all – there are more diaspora here than anywhere else, except Russia. So we’ve offered economic help, spoken out at the UN and NATO, are helping to train Ukrainian troops, and even supplying some military equipment. In a rare moment of domestic political agreement, both the former Conservatives and Mr. Trudeau’s party have been unanimous in this support

I visited the ‘National Museum of the History of Ukraine’ in World War II, which used to be called the ‘Museum of the Great Patriotic War’ before Mr. Putin’s invasions. These are not the times to be ambiguous about whose patriotism we are talking about – so the name got changed. It’s an impressive museum and there are magnificent sculptures on the grounds – of the proletariat, men and women, doing their bit for the big victory.

Many Ukrainians died in the Second World War and one could ask what they actually were fighting for. The Nazis were nasty people. Yet, looking at Finland fighting Russian aggression, some nationalist Ukrainians had hoped that the Germans would free them from the yoke of the oppressive Soviet regime, and its murderous leader. I didn’t notice much of that discussion among the gunnery and soldiers uniforms spread about the floors of the museum. Not yet anyway.

On the main floor, near the exit, sits a military truck, riddled with bullet holes, as if it were placed there to tease the attendee. Sure enough around the corner is a room dedicated to the over 2000 soldiers who had recently been killed in the Donbas. And that wasn’t counting the civilians or the number who’d been sacrificed on the other side, including those of the Russian regular army. A war without purpose and seemingly without end.

It was a moving exhibit set in the context of what was going on today. As I turned to leave, my eyes locked with those of the presiding female attendant. It was only a few seconds but I was left with a powerful image that will always haunt me. We didn’t speak, and anyway, what would we have said, and in which language – but the emotion was clear?

Mr. Putin would argue that Ukraine isn’t a nation and so Ukrainian isn’t a national language – just a dialect of Russian. Yet this language still persists and is growing in use, despite numerous efforts by the subsequent Russian and Soviet authorities to destroy it. And while more people speak Russian globally, researchers argue that Russian was derived from Ukrainian and not the other way around, making it the dialect in my book.

Being Canadian I know a little of linguistic divides, because we are a bilingual nation, and a relatively contented one at the present. And English and French are a lot more dissimilar than Slavic tongues, so the divide would be greater if we let it be. Canada is a bilingual country but everybody doesn’t speak both languages and we understand that we never will.

Today Russian speakers still make up a large percentage of the Ukrainian population. One elderly lady, I’d met, living in one of Kyiv’s Soviet-styled suburbs, explained to me how she had migrated from Russia in 1954. With one daughter now living in Ukrainian Kyiv and another in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad she slowly drew an imaginary line across her chest showing me how her heart was torn.

Another woman I met on the train, was returning to Kherson to sell her apartment after having lived in New York for the last 7 years. She complained that she hated the Ukrainian language and marveled that I was venturing to travel in this land given my relatively poor grasp of Ukrainian, though she herself only spoke Russian.

Does it really matter that Ukrainians speak Russian as well or even primarily instead of Ukrainian. Aren’t they still Ukrainians. Polls indicate that to be the case. The international linguist Michael Moser thinks making Russian an official second language would make social harmony worse rather that better. He would just leave well enough alone.

He may be right. Canada chose official bilingualism for very different reasons and that decision has served us well, making francophone Canadians feel at home anywhere they need to deal with the federal government. But Ukraine is a different country, has a longer history, and that makes it more complex. And it has to consider the neighbourhood bully – who holds that if you speak Russian you are a Russian.

But then we don’t have to worry that Canada’s even more powerful neighbour will invade and annex Alberta if we sign a free trade agreement with the EU, or speak with a Texan accent. Though that might improve Mr. Cruz’s claim on legitimacy in his race to become president.

Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran as a Liberal against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province. Rivers is no longer active with any political party.

Rivers has been in the Ukraine researching his next book.  He returns later this month.

Background links:

War Museum –  Finland/Russia –  Kaliningrad – Ukraine Crisis –

Ukraine Conflict –  Quebec Referendum –  Language – More Language – Still More Language –