History of the Ukrainian language at the beginning of the XX century: the educational dimension

Abstract

Background. The article aims at establishing the ideological, political, national, educational, and scientific processes which contributed to establishing the Ukrainian language in all spheres of usage and fostered its functional-stylistic development. The paper centers around the language socioleme, that is the history of Ukrainian speakers, readers, and writers, language researchers and those who fought for the right of Ukrainian to be the language of education and the subject of scientific study.Purpose. The article aims at highlighting the struggle for the rights of the Ukrainian language in 1905–1917, as well as some aspects of the Russian Empire language policy as regards university education in Dnieper Ukraine. The research material comprises the ideas of the then scholars and public figures, which appeared in the media at the time (predominantly in the Rada newspaper), archival documents, and gendarme papers.Methods. The article relies primarily on the descriptive method, coupled with elements of the contrastive method and the biographical analysis.Results. The struggle for the Ukrainian language rights in the realm of education began with the demand to establish native language courses at private educational institutions and an extensive Kharkiv and Odesa student campaign for the right to take courses in Ukrainian Studies. Fresh impetus was provided by Kyiv St. Volodymyr University students’ address to the academic council, appealing for the establishment of Departments of Ukrainian Studies. The Imperial University administration did not support the student initiative, which triggered a widespread debate in public and academic circles in Ukraine at the time.Discussion. Generally, up to 1917–1920 (the age of the Ukrainian Revolution) universities and other educational institutions featured no systematic annual academic courses in the Ukrainian language, its dialectal variation, or its history. At the time, Ukrainian did not function as the language of education and science in Dnieper Ukraine, nor was it an object of rigorous academic study. The Russian Empire language and national policy remained anti-Ukrainian, in disregard of the liberties declared in 1905.