Paper Titles & Abstracts

Abstract: Post-Soviet development of Belarus and Ukraine faced number similarities. Under the Soviet rule, these nations were subjects of the most advanced assimilation among the titular nations of the USSR national republics, based on the cultural and linguistic proximity of both nations to Russia and backed with an ideological component of a common so-called "old-Russian people concept" implemented into the Soviet official history. As a result, both in Belarus and Ukraine quite significant portions of the titular nations' representatives were subjects of increasing adaptation of the Russian language not only as their second, but also as their first language. Additionally, the local languages faced a degree of creolization, resulted into formation of the mixed languages, trasianka in Belarus and surzhyk in Ukraine. Independent Belarus and Ukraine had to adapt to the new realities of the language policies when titular language became an element of the political debate in both borderland nations. Many experts interpret Russian language as a part of the Soviet legacy and perceive Russophone population as potential adherents of pro-Russian geopolitical choice. The nationalization policies aimed at expansion of the role of the titular languages in both cases are regarded as elements of democratization and "back-to-Europe policies". At the same time, in both cases neither titular languages, nor Russian language de facto qualify for a notion "minority language". The paper provides a comparative analysis of language policies in Belarus and Ukraine arguing that language preference cannot be seen as a factor that determines either pro-European, or pro-Russian geopolitical choice.