STOP LINGUOCIDE: Issue 4, published yesterday on the official site of the State Language Protection Commissioner, draws further attention to the facts of the Ukrainian language suppression by Russia.
In the issue, Taras Kremin, the commissioner, emphasizes that the “purposeful destruction of the Ukrainian language (linguocide), as a defining feature of the Ukrainian nation, by Russia for many centuries is an indisputable historical fact.” He points out that Russia has been targeting the Ukrainian language, an important factor of Ukraine’s national identity and statehood, in its war against Ukraine and made linguocide is a “constituent part of the policy of genocide against Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories.”
“Acts of linguocide of the Ukrainian language are always accompanied by threats, intimidation, use of physical force, psychological pressure, restraint of liberty, abduction, torture, murder and other crimes against Ukrainians,” the issue reads.
Commissioner Kremin calls on both Ukrainians and representatives of the international community to document and report facts of any manifestation of linguocide, hoping that the occupiers will be eventually brought to justice for all their crimes.
Issue 4 also contains a summary of actions taken by the State Language Protection Commissioner in June up to date.
Taras Kremin launched the STOP LINGUOCIDE publications series on May 1, 2022.
As part of Russia’s centuries-long aggressive policy toward the Ukrainian nation, the Ukrainian language suppression by Muscovy, then Russia, then the Soviet Union, and now Russia again began in 1627 with the burning of all copies of Didactic gospels published in Ukrainian. A more or less full chronology of Ukrainian language suppression comprises an incredible number of instances (predominantly on the part of Russia).
