Linguocide of the Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea: a crime against identity
Зображення зі сторінки Уповноваженого із захисту української мови у Фейсбук
After the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the Ukrainian language on the peninsula was under direct threat of extinction. Despite the declarative recognition of Ukrainian alongside Russian and Crimean Tatar as state languages, in practice there has been a systematic and deliberate ousting of the Ukrainian language from all spheres of public life. This process bears all the hallmarks of linguocide, a criminal policy aimed at destroying the linguistic identity of a particular national community. The term "linguocide" (from the Latin lingua - language and caedere - to kill) means the deliberate displacement, prohibition or destruction of a language as a means of identity.
Although
the term "linguocide" has not yet been codified in international
criminal law as a separate crime, its manifestations are covered by
international conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Moreover, in 2024, the International Court of Justice recognized that the Russian Federation had violated ICERD by systematically depriving Ukrainians in Crimea of the right to education in their native language. This sets a legal precedent that allows us to qualify linguocide as a violation of international law and a crime against human rights. And if we take into account that Russia is waging not only an aggressive but also a genocidal war against Ukraine, we can consider linguistic genocide as an element of the genocide of the Ukrainian nation. At least the author of the term "genocide," lawyer Raphael Lemkin, would support this assessment
Background: the establishment of the Ukrainian language despite resistance
After
the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991, the Ukrainian language,
which had been oppressed under the conditions of systematic Russification
during the Soviet era, received new opportunities for development. The efforts
of the Ukrainian state were aimed at implementing the provisions of the
Constitution regarding the state status of the language. However, in the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, these initiatives often
encountered resistance from pro-Russian forces represented in both regional
authorities and local governments. The Russian Federation also systematically
supported these movements and influenced the language policy of Crimea.
Nevertheless, the active work of the Ukrainian
community contributed to the opening of Ukrainian schools, cultural events, the
publication of Ukrainian-language newspapers, and the creation of Ukrainian
public and political organizations that supported the Ukrainian language and
culture. It was an important, albeit difficult, period for the development of
the Ukrainian language on the peninsula
According to the 2001 All-Ukrainian Population Census, Ukrainians accounted for 24.4% of the population (576,000 people) in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and 20.7% (over 84,000 people) in the city of Sevastopol. Over 10% of the population of the ARC considered Ukrainian to be their native language. Over the next 13 years, the number of Ukrainian speakers is likely to have increased. These figures confirm the legitimacy of the Ukrainian community's demands for language rights.
Symbolic and practical displacement from public
Visible markers of Ukrainian presence were the first to be targeted. Signs with the Ukrainian names of settlements, streets, and state institutions were massively dismantled or replaced with Russian-language ones. The occupation administration, headed by the speaker of the illegitimate Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, organized a show on the Feodosia highway in November 2014, inviting representatives of the authorities, self-government bodies and the press, when the dismantling of Ukrainian-language road signs began. At the time, the collaborator said that more than four thousand signs would be replaced on the peninsula.
As a result of the illegal actions of the occupying state, the Ukrainian language has disappeared from advertising, signs, announcements, names of institutions - from everything that forms the information field. This "linguistic cleansing" is not only a propaganda act, but also a means of erasing traces of Ukrainian statehood, and in the long run, culture and identity.
At the
same time, the Ukrainian language has been de facto banned at the state level.
It is impossible to issue any documents in Ukrainian, from birth certificates
to notarial deeds. Ukrainian is not used in courts, even when a party to the
proceedings insists on it. This practice, for example, was described by Euromaidan activist from Yalta Larysa
Kitayska, who unsuccessfully demanded a Ukrainian interpreter from an
illegitimate court during the trial fabricated by the occupiers against her.
Let us remind you that according to the
"constitution" that Russia imposed on Crimea, the Ukrainian language
has the status of the state language. But this is just a fiction - an empty
word on paper.
Linguocide at school: destruction from the root
The
education system is an integral element of ensuring the rights of Ukrainian
citizens in Crimea to learn the state language, and of ethnic Ukrainians to
learn their native or ancestral language. Until 2014, all schoolchildren on
the Crimean peninsula studied Ukrainian as a subject. In the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea, there were seven schools with Ukrainian as the language of
instruction and more than 800 classes with Ukrainian as the language of
instruction, with more than 13,000 students. There were also
Ukrainian-language classes and a school in Sevastopol.
After the occupation, these institutions were forcibly
transferred to Russian within a year (formally, one of them in Crimea retained
the status of Ukrainian-language school, but in reality, as shown by human
rights activists, it quickly ceased to be so). There is de facto not a single
school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction left in Crimea. The number
of Ukrainian-language classes was radically reduced. By the end of 2019, the
number of Crimeans receiving education in Ukrainian at school had decreased by
150 times - to 214 people, or 0.1%. The situation has probably worsened
since the beginning of the large-scale aggression. It can be argued that the
occupiers in Crimea have illegally completely destroyed not only the Ukrainian
but also the Ukrainian-language education system.
A vivid
example of the deliberate destruction of Ukrainian-language education was the
fate of the Ukrainian School-Gymnasium in Simferopol, the leading Ukrainian-language
educational institution in Crimea, founded in 1997. In 2006, the gymnasium was
ranked among the top 100 schools in Ukraine, with nearly a thousand students
enrolled, and admission was competitive. However, already in April 2014, under
pressure from the occupation administration and the "Crimean
self-defense" (an illegal paramilitary group), the principal Natalia
Rudenko was forced to resign, and the school was soon deprived of its
Ukrainian-language status. In September of the same year, the gymnasium did not
open a single Ukrainian-language first grade, and later it was renamed the
Simferopol Academic Gymnasium and included cadet classes in its structure.
Since the fall of 2014, the occupation administration has forcibly transferred the entire education system in Crimea to Russian programs and standards. Ukrainian textbooks were confiscated, and the teaching of Ukrainian history was discontinued. The Ukrainian language was declared optional or excluded from the educational process altogether. Ukrainian textbooks have been removed from libraries, and new Ukrainian-language textbooks are practically not being created in the occupied Crimea. This creates additional complications for Crimean students who wish to study in Ukrainian. According to Russian law, high school classes are taught exclusively in Russian.
Teachers of the Ukrainian language and literature were forced to undergo retraining to teach Russian language and literature, and those who disagreed were fired. In 2014, the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology of the Vernadsky Tauride National University was liquidated.
Parents
who try to defend their children's right to education in the Ukrainian language
face pressure from administrations, often threats and sometimes even
persecution.
This
systemic linguocide is accompanied by the militarization of education,
including the creation of cadet and paramilitary classes and the imposition of
imperial ideology. Russia uses the education system as a tool to form a
pro-Russian chauvinistic identity and assimilate Ukrainians in the temporarily
occupied territory.
The
occupying power used the experience of destroying Ukrainian and Ukrainian-language
education in Crimea during the large-scale stage of aggression against Ukraine.
As reported in 2022 by the Center for Countering Disinformation, deported
Ukrainian educators from Kherson, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions are taken
to Crimea or Russia, where they are placed in special "retraining
camps." They are forced to teach exclusively in Russian and introduce
anti-Ukrainian narratives into the educational process.
The
same applies to children. Kidnapped Ukrainian schoolchildren from the occupied
territories are enrolled in "language courses" because, according to
Russian officials, "they do not have sufficient language skills."
Ukrainian children who were illegally transferred to Crimea by the occupiers
from the occupied territories of Ukraine in 2022-2025 are also taught and
"educated" in Russian. These children find themselves in a system
that not only prohibits them from speaking their native language, but also
convinces them that the Ukrainian language is something alien, inferior, and
hostile.
Russia systematically ignores the decisions of International Court of Justice
International
organizations regularly adopt documents documenting violations of the rights of
citizens in the occupied Crimea, including the right to receive Ukrainian-language
education, and call on the occupying power to remedy the situation. However,
Russia stubbornly continues to violate the rights of Crimeans. This forced
Ukraine to apply to the International Court of Justice regarding the occupying
power's gross violation of human and civil rights, particularly in the areas of
education and language.
Back on
April 19, 2017, this court issued an interim decision in the case of Ukraine v.
Russian Federation, which ordered Russia to ensure access to education in the
Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea. Despite this, the Russian Federation
completely ignored this decision, continuing to curtail Ukrainian-language
education.
On January 31, 2024, the International Court of Justice found that Russia had violated the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by depriving ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea of the right to education in the Ukrainian language. The Court found that this policy contradicted Articles 2 and 5 of the Convention. But despite this new and final ruling, Russia continues to ignore international law and intensify the linguistic violence against Ukrainians in Crimea.
Media and culture: silencing the Ukrainian
After
the occupation, all independent Ukrainian media practically disappeared in
Crimea. Ukrainian TV channels and radio stations have been cut off, and
journalists have been persecuted or forced to leave the peninsula. Russia
illegally restricts Crimeans' access to the Ukrainian segment of the Internet.
At the same time, Ukrainian printed materials, including textbooks, books, and
periodicals, have been banned. Any manifestation of Ukrainian culture - a song,
a movie, even an embroidered shirt - can be a reason for detention or search.
After
the full-scale invasion in 2022, persecution for speaking Ukrainian only
intensified. In particular, there are cases of Crimeans being persecuted for
singing or listening to Ukrainian songs in public and even private places. The
occupiers have created and maintain a system of snitching in Crimea. Ukrainian
songs and words have become markers of the "enemy".
In everyday life, the situation is no better. Ukrainian-speaking citizens face prejudice, ridicule, or outright aggression. Even a simple request in Ukrainian in a store or hospital can cause conflict. Most of these incidents remain unknown to the general public. In July 2024, the administrative arrest in Alushta of , a pensioner Anatoliy Golyakovychwho spoke Ukrainian to a shop assistant, became publicized. He was also fined 30 thousand rubles. This is a typical sign of linguocide: creating an environment where the victim's language is not only discouraged, but actively punished.
Harassment of the Ukrainian community in Crimea
A
separate manifestation of linguistic oppression was the persecution of active
members of the Ukrainian community, whose efforts largely created and
maintained the Ukrainian-speaking environment in Crimea. There have been cases
of arrests, abductions, torture, and even murder of Ukrainian activists. Many
were forced to leave Crimea, some were de facto deported, such as Ukrainian
activists Andriy Shchekun and Anatoliy Kovalsky in 2014. The occupation
administrations are systematically working to suppress any form of Ukrainian
self-identification. National organizations are either banned or forced to
cease operations under pressure. Cultural centers, Sunday schools, Ukrainian
language courses - all of them have either been destroyed or are operating in
the deep underground.
Attempts
to create new Ukrainian organizations independent of the occupation
administration face opposition. In 2014, the Ukrainian People's House in
Simferopol ceased its activities after the abduction of its leader and
activist. The soon-to-be established purely cultural organization, the
Ukrainian Cultural Center in Crimea, whose task was to preserve the Ukrainian
language and culture and publish a Ukrainian-language newspaper, ceased to
exist in a few years as a result of administrative and other extrajudicial
persecution of its members.
In the
face of well-founded accusations from Ukraine and the international community
of discrimination against the Ukrainian community in Crimea and the Ukrainian
language, Russia has resorted to creating fictitious Ukrainian structures. This
is how the "Ukrainian Community of Crimea" appeared, headed by
Anastasia Gridchina, an activist of the United Russia party and currently a
member of the illegitimate "State Council of the Republic of Crimea".
The task of this structure is to propagate Russian narratives in the occupied
Crimea, in Russia, and in the international arena. The "Ukrainian
community of Crimea" also holds cultural events to create the appearance
of Ukrainianness and has created propaganda Ukrainian-language media, often
with poor Ukrainian, but with a clear line to propagate the hateful ideas of
racism.
In the
context of the destruction of Ukrainian political and public organizations,
religious organizations partially took over the function of preserving the
Ukrainian language and culture, primarily the Crimean Diocese of the UOC of the
Kyiv Patriarchate (since 2018 - the autocephalous OCU) and parishes of the
former Crimean Exarchate of the UGCC, which were forced to re-register as a
separate exarchate subordinate to the Vatican. In these religious
organizations, sermons and services were conducted in Ukrainian, national
holidays were celebrated, and Ukrainian traditions were maintained.
However, since 2014, both denominations have been under
constant pressure from the occupiers, up to and including the seizure of
churches by force, resulting in a steady decline in the number of communities.
In 2024, after the occupiers seized the cathedral of the Crimean Diocese of the
OCU in Simferopol, Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and Crimea announced the
forced termination of the diocese's activities. Before the war began, according
to sociological surveys, one-tenth of Crimeans identified themselves as
believers of the UOC-KP. The number of parishes of Ukrainian Greek Catholics
has decreased by several times.
The Russian occupation authorities are deliberately destroying those elements of civil society that were the carriers of the Ukrainian language and identity, and systematically persecuting activists who defended these values. This policy is based on the chauvinistic ideology of racism, which denies the right of Ukrainians to sovereign existence as a people and a state.
Ukrainian authorities call for collecting evidence of attack
Taras
Kremin, the
Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, has repeatedly
emphasized that the collected facts of linguistic violence have been submitted
to international human rights organizations and should be attached to Ukraine's
lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights.
Kremin calls on Ukrainians
from the newly de-occupied territories to record all cases of language
harassment, from bans in schools to domestic discrimination.
"As for the linguistic crime, we have collected an extremely large amount of materials over these two years. All of them have been submitted to international human rights organizations and law enforcement agencies... Since the occupation of part of the Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian language has been ousted, including from the sphere of education. First of all, it is the seizure or burning of books, retraining of teachers, imposition of school programs in accordance with Russian educational legislation," - Kremin said.
Not just a fight for words - a fight for dignity
Today,
Crimea is not only a territory occupied by the armed forces. It is a space
where the occupation authorities are trying to erase the very concept of
"Ukrainian." But the language issue, even against the backdrop of
other systemic and large-scale violations of the rights of Ukrainian citizens by
Russia, is not a trifle. History shows that where language is destroyed, people
may soon begin to be destroyed. That is why the struggle for the Ukrainian
language in Crimea is a struggle not only for a legal norm, but for dignity and
the future.
We must
remember that the Ukrainian language has the right to sound wherever the
Ukrainian heart lives. And the day will come when it will sound again in
Simferopol, Yalta, and Bakhchisarai - freely, proudly, openly. Without fear.
The restoration of language rights is not a political gesture, but a
fundamental step towards the return of Crimea as part of the Ukrainian
cultural, historical and legal space.
Andrii IVANETS, leading researcher at the
Read more on the topic: Reflections on the state language: Crimea, past, present, future
This publication was compiled with the support of the
International Renaissance Foundation. Its content is the
exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the
views of the International Renaissance Foundation.
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