The article deals with the official position of the Soviet government in the national policy during 1943-1982 years, analyzes the situation in the linguistic environment in Donetsk region, and identifies the main channels of policy in the language environment, particularly through the school system as a major mechanism in the process. We can conclude that from the beginning of tenure as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Khrushchev and the end of Brezhnev`s era more than half of schools were (...) Russian. This trend was observed among the students also. Difference proportion of pupils who have studied Russian and Ukrainian languages in nearly two decades has changed in favor of the Russian language when in 1959/60 year Russian was taught almost 3.5 times more than Ukrainian, while in 1978/79 year there were 12.8 times more. This shows that in the 1943-1982 period the Soviet government consistently carried out the process of creating a single Soviet people in the territory of the USSR by the Russification of education. Visibly voluntary choice of language of study at the command-administrative methods of the country management made even better results behind the screen democracy. Since such a large state like the Soviet Union sought to unify the system of inter-republic communication through the introduction of Russian language in the process the Russification of Ukrainian SSR carried out more rapidly than in other Soviet republics, and had its own special features. (shrink)

The article defines the nature of the Russian war against Ukraine in the context of social and state transformations of the 20th — 21st centuries. It is emphasized that this is a war of different worlds, mentalities, worldviews, ways of life, values, etc., which has been going on for many centuries in various forms (direct and mediated, open and veiled, hot and cold). The role of the religious-legal factor in the Russian war against Ukraine at various stages of Ukrainian state (...) formation (periods of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Soviet, modern) is revealed. It is emphasized that it was during the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic that the legal basis for the organization of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church, confessional differentiation and the establishment of freedom of conscience and interconfessional tolerance in Ukrainian society was created. Emphasized attention is paid to the fact that in the Soviet period, the Russian war against Ukraine continued in a new, veiled, hidden, invisible (at first glance) form with the active use of the religious factor. The results of this period have been determined, namely: rampant militant/ scientific atheism, radical extermination, Russification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, etc. Special attention is paid to the Soviet secular/political religion (Marxism-Leninism) as a key basis for the implementation of an aggressive policy regarding the historical memory and cultural identity of the Ukrainian people and a manipulative tool for the destruction of Ukrainian history, culture, worldview, nation, state and law in the information, hybrid, total, full-scale and other Russia’s wars against Ukraine. The article substantiates that improved legislation with an effective legal mechanism for its implementation, a strong civil society with developed institutions, including the institution of religion (church), adequate guarantees of religious rights and freedoms are important factors in ensuring state, national, religious security and victory of Ukraine (at the current stage) in the war waged against it by the Russian Federation. (shrink)

Harbin is a city in Northeast China that rose to prominence as a result of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway in a context of Russian imperial expansion. Affectionately known as “the Moscow of the East,” Harbin’s history, architecture, food, and language bear strong Russian/Soviet influences. Given the joint Chinese and Russian/European influences, Harbin represents a dynamic, hybridized, and liminal space. Adopting the conceptual lenses of “chronotope” and “polyphony,” this study explores the linguistic and semiotic landscape of the famous (...) Saint Sophia Cathedral (an Eastern Orthodox church) and Zhongyang Street/Central Street (a Russian-style pedestrian street) in Harbin. Historically, these areas once featured highly Russified linguistic/semiotic landscape, which later saw significant de-Russification as many Russians left and a Chinese identity was emphasized. In recent decades, Russian linguistic and semiotic elements are deliberately foregrounded and strategically employed in a context of tourism, commerce, and business. Drawing on a corpus of photographic data, the study examines the combination and orchestration of multilingual signs (i.e., Chinese, English, and Russian), investigates issues of translation, and explores how the multilingual signs, various architectural styles (of Russian/European origins), various products (e.g., Russian-style khleb, kvass, and Matryoshka dolls) and spatiotemporal elements give rise to dynamic semiotic assemblages. Its findings reveal how such multimodal and multisemiotic ensembles construct a sense of authenticity and exoticness and importantly contribute to the commodification of Harbin. These lead to a diverse and cosmopolitan image, a hybrid East-meets-West urban identity and a layered urban palimpsest. This interdisciplinary study contributes to scholarship in multilingualism, linguistic/semiotic landscape, the commodification of language, multimodal discourse analysis, urban studies, urban geography, and sociolinguistics. (shrink)

Modern Ukraine is a post-colonial, post-totalitarian state in which decolonization, decommunization, and de-Russification have not yet been fully implemented. This article sets itself the goal of reviewing the agenda of the processes of civilizational transit of Ukraine and developing theoretically grounded vectors of the said process. The important fact that the current stage of development of the “worldview gravity” of Ukrainian society is characterized by an eclectic system of stereotypes is also of significant importance: here coexist both old stereotypes (...) of consciousness and behavior, which have largely ceased to fulfill their functions, and new ones that are unstable and ambiguous. The series of ideas regarding the Ukrainian civilizational choice was already discovered in a monograph, “Civilizational crossroads of modern society,” and presented for Ukrainian readers a few years ago. The current article offers a revision of the previously presented ideas for the international audience of the journal readers, taking into account the current Ukrainian sociocultural situation, at the center of which are the challenges produced by the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The policy of new realism can become an effective tool for social modernization. The given word combination is not accidental: the realism of this type of politics insists on the need for the adequate perception of reality in all its essential aspects, and the novelty emphasizes the need to operate not with the laws and features of the socio-political status quo “in general,” but taking into account the latest dynamics, trends, threats, and problematic challenges. The people and the country need not only (and sometimes not so much) a thorough understanding of their cultural-civilizational, geopolitical, and economic-economic prospects but an indomitable character that guarantees the realization of their potential in spite of anything and against anything. On the difficult path of establishing a civilizational choice, Ukrainians will need not only the awareness of the incomplete state of political modernization, the limited, post-totalitarian (post-colonial, etc.) status, but also to work at the individual level to accelerate evolutionary processes. These processes can catalyze political decisions, not at the declarative level but at the practical level, to fill the steps for the approval of the civilizational choice with content. Step-by-step changes in favor of a new worldview horizon will require significant changes at the personal level through the rejection of destructive post-colonial (post-totalitarian, etc.) narratives in social practice in favor of the development of Ukrainian national identity, which will be preceded by the rational assimilation of the perspectives of civilizational choice, which is a fruitful combination of the European civilizational project and heritage of Ukrainian culture. (shrink)

The article defines the nature of the Russian war against Ukraine in the context of social and state transformations of the 20th — 21st centuries. It is emphasized that this is a war of different worlds, mentalities, worldviews, ways of life, values, etc., which has been going on for many centuries in various forms (direct and mediated, open and veiled, hot and cold). The role of the religious-legal factor in the Russian war against Ukraine at various stages of Ukrainian state (...) formation (periods of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Soviet, modern) is revealed. It is emphasized that it was during the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic that the legal basis for the organization of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church, confessional differentiation and the establishment of freedom of conscience and inter-confessional tolerance in Ukrainian society was created. Emphasized attention is paid to the fact that in the Soviet period, the Russian war against Ukraine continued in a new, veiled, hidden, invisible (at first glance) form with the active use of the religious factor. The results of this period have been determined, namely: rampant militant/ scientific atheism, radical extermination, Russification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, etc. Special attention is paid to the Soviet secular/political religion (Marxism-Leninism) as a key basis for the implementation of an aggressive policy regarding the historical memory and cultural identity of the Ukrainian people and a manipulative tool for the destruction of Ukrainian history, culture, worldview, nation, state and law in the information, hybrid, total, full-scale and other Russia’s wars against Ukraine.The article substantiates that improved legislation with an effective legal mechanism for its implementation, a strong civil society with developed institutions, including the institution of religion (church), adequate guarantees of religious rights and freedoms are important factors in ensuring state, national, religious security and victory of Ukraine (at the current stage) in the war waged against it by the Russian Federation. (shrink)

This chapter tells about the first Kazakh engineer M. Tynyshpayev, railways, bridges, and canals builder. He fought against the abuses and lawlessness of the colonial authorities, opposed the Russification of the Kazakhs, and defended the participants and victims of the 1916 Revolt.

The phenomenon of nationalism, which emerged as a result of modernization and industrialization in Western Europe, soon began to threaten the multi-lingual multinational feudal state structure of the Tsarist administration. Tsarist Russia, which wanted to preserve its borders and the existing state structure that expanded to the Caucasus and Turkestan, followed the assimilation and missionary policies towards the middle of the 19th century to Russify and Christianize non-Russian (Nerusky) and non-Christian (Inoverets) ethnic groups. At the beginning of this cultural nationalist (...) policy, which was carried out by Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky, who worked on theology and Turkish dialects in Kazan Spiritual Academy, in order to have Russian as a language of education and communication within the Tsarist borders. The education method of Ilminsky, supported by Tsar Alexander II, enabled the Russian language and Christianity to become widespread and more systematically applied as a reflection of the rising Russian nationalism. In line with this training method, it was aimed to carry out missionary activities, to teach Russian and Cyrillic alphabet alongside local languages, to divide these languages with accents and dialects and to make Russian a common language within Tsarist borders. Thus, the religious and ethnically different groups were wanted to be assimilated within the Russian and Orthodox Christian identities. This study examines the process of cultural assimilation policy carried out by the Russian nationalism through the education system of Ilminsky, the factors affecting this process, the structure and applications of this education system. Although the education system of Ilminsky did not reach its target within the boundaries of the empire, it was seen to be quite effective in Christianization of Tatar Turks, in spreading Russian among other ethnic groups and in terms of laying the ground for the subsequent Russification policies. The Ilminsky education system, which caused the start of a new phase in Russian nationalism, led to the emergence of nationalist ideas and intelligentsia among the ethnic groups exposed to this system The nationalist ideas spread among the ethnic groups exposed to the policy of Russification have enabled the establishment of new educational systems and the emergence of national liberation movements. (shrink)

Searching for Ukraine's cultural identity is one of the most urgent tasks in the process of building an independent state. Defining itself today in new coordinates, Ukraine looks back to find productive models of coexistence with certain nations. It turned out that religion and church played an important role in the self-identification of Ukrainians, who were not only markers of Ukrainianness but also formed the latter. However, not all churches that prevailed in Ukraine were focused on the interests of the (...) Ukrainian people. The negative consequences for the development of Orthodoxy in Ukraine were the policy of Russification of the Russian autocracy, which concerned primarily the linguistic, religious and cultural spheres. These problems were not allowed to write until the early 1990's. Russian cultural influences were presented as brotherly aid, as Slavic solidarity in the fight against other Slavic brothers, including the Poles. Therefore, it is time to speak honestly and openly about those factors that hindered the full formation of the Ukrainian national consciousness, deprived it of a distinct identity, and led to a partial assimilation of the Ukrainian ethnic group. (shrink)

In the article I presentSolov'ëv's views on the national question(including the so-called Polish question)presented in his writings of the 1880s. Thequestion involved uniting the Churches as wellas Russia's specific mission in building thefuture Kingdom of God. Solov'ëv's position,according to which individual nations acquire aconcrete place in the course of mankind'sexistence, was subjected to criticism by thePolish historian Stanisaw Tarnowski. Thiscontributed to an interesting discussion andpolemic between the two thinkers that tookplace on the pages of the journal PrzegldPolski (The Polish Review).

У статті досліджується русифікація та ідеологізація мовно-культурного простору українців протягом 60-70-х рр. ХХ ст., показано витіснення української мови повсюдним уведенням російської, висвітлюється державна політика тоталітарного комуністичного режиму, спрямована на усунення національних відмінностей, зближення націй, досягнення їх повної єдності та створення "нероздільного радянського народу". Акцентовано, що всі свої зусилля радянська влада скеровувала на зміцнення російської національно-політичної переваги в Україні та втілення в життя тези про російську мову як "другу рідну". Із часом правляча компартійна верхівка значно звузила сферу застосування української мови й (...) сформувала статус її меншовартості. Стрімко зменшувався відсоток українського друкованого слова, утрачав національне обличчя український театр, російська мова заповнювала програми радіо- та телеефіру. Однак проти процесів русифікації населення УРСР та "теорії двомовності" активно виступили українські педагоги, письменники, літературні критики, кінорежисери, художники, науковці, громадські діячі. Результатом протистояння між свідомою українською інтелігенцією і радянським бюрократичним апаратом стала поява шістдесятників, які в підсумку очолили національне відродження України кінця 1980-х - початку 1990-х рр. (shrink)

Could anyone shake nineteenth century Russia out of herphilosophico-juridical stagnation? Was there anyone whodared speak of rights, of freedoms based on vital principles?Was there anyone who had the courage to suggest that the lawof force be turned into recognition of the force of law, orwas bold enough to call for the revival of natural law onits idealist reading? Solov'ëv turned out to be the thinkerwho was able to do these things. An amateur in juridicalquestions, remote from the enlightenment rationalizations ofpolitical (...) liberalism, Solov'ëv set out to lay the basis forjuridical freedom in way that was unexpected philosophicallyand culturally. (shrink)

Chapter 1 presents Kazakhstan’s difficult path of redefining its national identity under changing internal and external demands from the Soviet era. Originally meant to be a study of Kazakhstan’s Soviet legacy, this chapter grows to show how the January 2022 demonstrations and the consequent Russia-Ukraine crisis have changed the political environment and diplomatic ties of the nation. Often seen with mixed nostalgia and ambivalence, Kazakhstan’s significant Russian-speaking minority, the legacy of Russification, and notable cultural markers such as Soviet-era monuments (...) and holidays expose the ongoing imprint of Soviet influence on Kazakh society.Chapter 1 shows President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s recent actions to diversify foreign relations by increasing connections with Turkic states, demonstrating intent to create resilience outside Russia’s orbit as Kazakhstan reevaluates its geopolitical orientation. Within the larger framework of Central Asia, where economic reliance on Russia, regional security issues, and the cultural heritage of Soviet authority define both opportunities and difficulties for Kazakhstan’s identity, the chapter explores Kazakhstan’s strategic reorientation. Setting the historical and geopolitical context, Chapter 1 prepares readers to examine Kazakhstan’s internal changes and foreign policy adjustments as it negotiates the complexity of Soviet nostalgia and a post-Soviet identity among modern global and regional dynamics. (shrink)