The acceleration of the Ukrainians’ assimilation due to deliberate narrowing of the Ukrainian language: 60’s-70’s of the XXth century

Abstract

This article investigates anti-Ukrainian language policy in Ukraine during the 60’s – 70’s of the twentieth century, whose main objective was artificial exclusion of the use of the Ukrainian language and the acceleration of the Ukrainians’ assimilation. Narrowing the Ukrainian language in higher educational institutions of Ukraine was felt especially painfully, where the younger generation of the Ukrainians was trained and brought up. Teaching most special and general subjects in higher education resorted to Russian more and more frequently. Those features of Ukrainian higher education showed the wealth of the national language, culture, facilitated the study of their national history, promoted a national idea, the ideas of Ukrainian statehood were leveled under the influence of the Russification policy. Also, the paper examines the denationalization of the titular nation – the Ukrainian SSR by the media, which were a part of the informational space of the Soviet totalitarian state. The article reveals the destructive role of the media in narrowing the Ukrainian national outlook and “undermining” their social and psychological stability, showing a ban on national-patriotic materials in the Ukrainian printed word, radio, television. Russification of all spheres of the Ukrainian people significantly reduced the use of the Ukrainian language and formed the status of its inferiority and laid the basis for all intensive large-scale assimilation of the Ukrainians.