Problems of Ukrainian-language education in Crimea before the occupation: causes and consequences

The process of establishing Ukrainian-language education in Crimea should be viewed as one of the main problems that the Ukrainian state failed to fully realize on the peninsula before the occupation. Why Ukrainian has not become a truly state language for Crimean schoolchildren over the years of independence, what preceded it, and what measures the Ukrainian community in Crimea took to ensure that it functions in the educational sphere will be discussed in this article.

As you know, language is a source of knowledge about the past, present and future of any nation. It is in the language that the old and new culture is preserved, a sign of the nationality of any people. And as long as the language lives, the people as a nationality will live. A nation is alive as long as its language is alive. So if you deprive a people of its language, it will simply die.

The origins of why the Ukrainian language has not "taken root" on the Crimean peninsula, particularly in the educational sphere, should be sought in the recent past, starting with the times when Crimea had just become part of the Ukrainian SSR, because the problem of rejection of the language by Crimeans began there. 

Ukrainian language in Crimea in 1950-1960 

The question of introducing the Ukrainian language on the peninsula was raised by the Crimean authorities six months after the transfer. On September 13, 1954, a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, approved by a resolution of the Bureau of the Regional Committee, stated, in particular:

"In connection with the transfer of the Crimean region to the Ukrainian SSR, the Crimean regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine considers it necessary to introduce the study of the Ukrainian language and literature in the schools of the Crimean region in the 1955-1956 academic year."

This process was analyzed very thoroughly in a large analytical article by a well-known Ukrainian scholar and public figure Petro Volvach entitled "Gordian Knot of Ukrainian-language education in Crimea and ways to solve it," which was published in 2006-2007 in the Krymska Svitlytsia.

According to P. Volvach, "only in 1957 did the Crimean regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine raise the issue of organizing the study of the Ukrainian language in the schools of the region. During 1954-1955, apparently under pressure from the IDPs themselves, Crimean officials decided to open 24 primary schools in Crimea where Ukrainian was taught as a subject. From the 1955-1956 school year, the study of the Ukrainian language was introduced only in the second through fourth grades of primary, seven-year, and secondary schools with more than four primary classes. As for the study of the Ukrainian language in grades five through eight, the Communist Party officials decided not to introduce it. They also found justifications for deliberate sabotage: "The introduction of the Ukrainian language will affect the reduction of other disciplines, which will cause discontent among teachers."

Teaching the Ukrainian language in the third and fourth grades was initially entrusted to classroom teachers. One can only guess at what level this teaching was conducted and what kind of science it was. That's why the regional committee demanded that Ukrainian be taught in schools by teachers who knew it at least a little. It was even estimated that at least 210 teachers would need to be sent from other regions of Ukraine to do this."

It was for this purpose that the Ukrainian language and literature department was opened at the local pedagogical institute at the Faculty of History and Philology on the initiative of the Crimean regional committee. This department, which later became an independent faculty, began training specialists in Ukrainian language and literature, making it possible to introduce compulsory study of Ukrainian language and literature in Crimean schools.

Another achievement of that time was that the bureau of the regional committee and the regional executive committee decided to organize a secondary school in Simferopol on September 1, 1957, with the Ukrainian language of instruction and a contingent of 280 students in grades five through ten. At the same school, the regional committee ordered to organize a boarding school for children from the Crimean hinterland. According to P. Volvach, these important centers of Ukrainian education and culture have educated several thousand true patriots of Ukraine. Many of them became famous people. The only Ukrainian school in Crimea was closed during the Brezhnev-Suslov offensive against Ukrainian culture and the creation of a "single community, the Soviet people."

As Mr. Volvach notes in his study, "in 1957, according to the testimony of the Crimean occupation authorities, there was a real opportunity to open full-fledged Ukrainian not only primary but also high schools in many rural Crimean schools. There was also no shortage of people willing to study there. This was confirmed by interviews with parents by employees of public education departments in the places where Ukrainians were settled (Saky, Dzhankoy, Oktyabrsky, Zuysky, Bakhchisaray and other districts). Enrollment of children in Ukrainian primary schools was hampered by the fact that there were no seven-year or secondary Ukrainian-language schools in Crimea. It was because of their absence, displacement, and the inability to provide children with seven-year and secondary education in their native language that the Ukrainian population of the postwar wave sent their children to Russian schools.

The complaints of persistent parents and numerous appeals to the party and Soviet authorities forced the authorities to consider creating a regional Ukrainian boarding school in 1957. After all, tens of thousands of families arrived annually not only in Crimean villages but even in the regional center. Thus, in 1953, the number of school-age children in Simferopol increased by 9,457 people only due to the immigrants. The vast majority of them expressed a desire to study in Ukrainian. But there were no Ukrainian classes or Ukrainian schools in Crimea."

In addition, there was a shortage of Ukrainian language teachers at the time. Documents show that out of 2,193 primary school teachers, only 94 spoke Ukrainian. The task was to train 1,500 teachers for grades 2-4 in short-term courses. Textbooks were to be provided to 320 seven-year schools and 140 secondary schools. One Ukrainian language teacher was to be sent to each seven-year school, and two to each secondary school. Crimean seven-year and secondary schools were to be supplemented with 600 teachers of the Ukrainian language and literature. "There was no need to talk about subject teachers who spoke Ukrainian - they did not exist in Crimea," notes P. Volvach.

Thanks to the then first secretary of the Crimean regional committee, Vasyl Komiakhov, who in the first years after the transfer tried to create a "Ukrainian face" for Crimea, the situation with the Ukrainian language in education and beyond began to improve, as he, of course, not without the support of Kyiv, dared to somewhat Ukrainize the Crimean authorities, which was not received positively by everyone.

Thus, according to P. Volvach, "the departments of public education, with the support of the Crimean regional committee headed by Vasyl Komiakhov, focused their attention mainly on the introduction of the Ukrainian language in Crimean schools in 1955-1961. As of May 15, 1957, there were more than 50 such schools, including 23 in Simferopol, 10 in Kerch, 7 in Yalta, 4 in Sevastopol, 1 in Feodosia, and 4 in Alushta. Ukrainian was also taught in almost 25 rural schools. In the 1958-1959 school year, Ukrainian was already taught in all second, third, and fifth grades. There were 19,766 students in total. 

In 1959, according to statistical reports, eight Ukrainian-language schools were established in Crimea: two in Simferopol, Bilohirsk and Chornomorsk districts, and three in Dzhankoy.

It was during Vasyl Komiakhov's leadership that the work on creating Ukrainian-language classes in Crimean schools improved. If in the first year it was studied in 38 classes of 24 schools by 619 students, then two years later, according to the curricula of the Ministry of Public Education of Ukraine, there were already 115 classes in 70 schools with 2,383 children...".

This accumulated experience of teaching the Ukrainian language in Crimean schools paved the way not only for its introduction in all educational institutions, but also allowed for the start of work on the creation of Ukrainian-language schools. After all, several hundred thousand Ukrainian families, including many high school students, had already been relocated from Ukraine to Crimea in the late 1950s and were forced to study all subjects in Russian.

In his research, P. Volvach notes that the party regional committee and the leadership of the regional department of public education, which employed many intelligent patriotic specialists, realized in the late 1950s that parallel classes with Ukrainian as the language of instruction and Ukrainian-language schools needed to be opened in settlements with a high proportion of the Ukrainian population.

A memorandum from O. Kosiak's general secretary in August 1957 stated:

"The absence of schools with a full cycle of education in Ukrainian in Crimea complicates the situation of IDP children, especially students in grades 5-10, who have already mastered the formulation of theorems, laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry and other subjects in their native language, and many of them could not switch to Russian or stayed in the same grade for a second year or were forced to leave school altogether."

Not everyone liked the position of the head of the Crimean regional committee regarding the introduction of the Ukrainian language not only in the educational sector, but also in party and Soviet work. Kyiv and Moscow began to receive complaints about the fictitious "Ukrainization," after which all of Vasyl Komiakhov's activities came to a halt.

Therefore, in the 1960s, the development of Ukrainian culture and education was no longer discussed at party meetings or at meetings of the regional committee bureau. In the early 1960s, the number of students studying Ukrainian in Crimean schools began to decline. Petro Volvach notes: "If in the 1960-1961 school year 24,075 fifth-graders learned the language, then 22,868 of them continued to study Ukrainian in the sixth grade the following year." The authorities did not raise the issue of opening Ukrainian schools in places where Ukrainians densely populated, even though the need for such schools was enormous.

Since the early sixties, the concern of the Crimean party and Soviet institutions for Ukrainian culture and education has been purely propaganda and declarative. Outside of schools, the Ukrainian language was not officially used or functioned anywhere."

It should be noted that it was in the 1960s that the trend of parents exempting their children from learning Ukrainian emerged and began to gain momentum and spread in subsequent years. In addition to the military, KGB, and police, the entire Communist Party and economic nomenklatura exercised this right. In this way, during the 1960s and 1980s, the Ukrainian teaching profession was completely demoralized and the Ukrainian language was discriminated against in Crimea and Ukraine.
Thus, the powerful process of revival of Ukrainian culture and development of Ukrainian education, launched in 1955-1960, was deliberately and consciously brought to naught by the highest party echelons in Moscow and Kyiv. 

Formation of the Ukrainian language in Crimean education after independence 

In the above-mentioned study, P. Volvach also touches upon the problems of introducing the Ukrainian language in Crimean schools after 1991.

"Ukrainian public organizations in Crimea began to work on the creation of Ukrainian-language classes and schools as early as the era of Gorbachev's perestroika. The development of Ukrainian-language schooling became the main programmatic task of the Crimean Society of the Ukrainian Language, the All-Crimean Society "Prosvita" named after Taras Shevchenko, the All-Crimean Society of Scientists, and the editorial office of the Crimean Svitlytsia newspaper, established in the late 1980s and early 1990s," the author says.

As an example of the struggle to open Ukrainian schools on the peninsula, P. Volvach cites the situation around the first Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Crimea since Ukraine's independence: for almost eight years, the Ukrainian community fought with the Crimean authorities to open it. It was opened only on September 1, 1997. Moreover, it was allocated an inadequately adapted building, which made it impossible for the school to function properly.

The appeal of parents, NGOs, the board of trustees and the management of the gymnasium to provide, or rather return, the legalized premises of the Ukrainian boarding school that existed until the early 1980s was met with fierce resistance from the deputy corps in the Supreme Council of the Autonomy. As a result, the gymnasium was transferred to a closed kindergarten, where conditions were somewhat better, but still did not meet the necessary sanitary and educational standards.

According to P. Volvach, "as of 1996, according to official reports, there was only one school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction in Crimea (secondary school No. 21 in Simferopol) and 23 classes in different regions. The extent to which children from Ukrainian families were assimilated is evidenced by the information of the Minister of Education of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Yuriy Podkopayev, sent in 1997 to the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It states that at that time, 314,768 students were enrolled in general education institutions of the autonomy, including 183,218 Russians, 73,843 Ukrainians, and 43,661 Crimean Tatar children.

How was the right of a huge number of Ukrainian children to be taught in their native language ensured? A high-ranking education official could not falsify the sad statistics. He reported on the true "friendship of nations" and great-power "internationalism." In Crimea, where more than 700,000 Ukrainians lived, only one school had the status of an educational institution with Ukrainian as the language of instruction (Simferopol, school No. 21). Even this one school, the only one in the entire autonomy, could hardly be called a full-fledged school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction, as only a few primary classes were Ukrainian-speaking. It is surprising that in the official ministerial reports for the next 1998-1999 school year, school No. 21 in Simferopol as a Ukrainian-language institution has already disappeared. The ministry presents as Ukrainian-speaking the Ukrainian School-Gymnasium in Simferopol, Primorsk School No. 20, the Alushta Ukrainian School-College and the School-Garden No. 15 in Yalta."

"Even a cursory acquaintance with various educational programs and concepts for the development of Ukrainian-language education annually cloned by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea during 1996-2005," the author argues, "convincingly shows that all of them were only declarative and populist in nature and were aimed at quietly sabotaging the orders of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

In his study, P. Volvach cites an interesting document entitled "Program for the Formation and Development of a Network of Educational Institutions with Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar and Other Languages of Instruction for 1996-2005."

As stated in the preamble to it:

"The main goal of this program is to define the strategy and tactics for the development of the education system in Crimea as a whole and in the regions in order to maximize the rights of citizens to education in their native language, inherit the spiritual values of their people, and form the personal traits of Ukrainian citizens in young people, regardless of their nationality."

The implementation of this program would largely ensure the constitutional right of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in Crimea to raise and educate their children in their native, and also state, language. After all, over a decade, the network of Ukrainian-language schools in Crimea should have included almost 140 educational institutions.

However, all these intentions of the Crimean officials were declared only on paper, and they remained there. For the sake of curiosity, let's take a look at what exactly was proposed by this "program" and which educational institutions, according to it, should have already been Ukrainian-language by the time of the occupation. This document is a vivid example of the extent of the Crimean leaders' deliberate inaction in the development of Ukrainian education in Crimea.

EXPANSION OF THE NETWORK OF UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE SCHOOLS FOR 1996-2005

In fact, as of early 2003, out of 583 schools operating in Crimea, only four were Ukrainian-language schools. Of the 25.4 percent of ethnic Ukrainian students, only 0.7 percent were taught in the state language.

According to the official annual report of the ARC Ministry of Education for the 2002-2003 school year, 4,891 students, or 1.9 percent of the total number, studied in Ukrainian in Crimea. This is despite the fact that, according to the 2001 census, more than 10 percent of the peninsula's residents declared Ukrainian as their native language.

And here is another official document that P. Wolwach refers to in his study, which was used by Crimean educational officials to report on their "activities" to Kyiv:

"In the 2005/2006 school year there were seven general education schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. In 130 general education schools with Russian as the language of instruction there are 349 classes with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. One Crimean Tatar-teaching school has 19 classes with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. In addition, in 21 general education institutions with three languages of instruction (Ukrainian, Russian, Crimean Tatar), there are 120 classes with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. Thus, a total of 9,903 pupils, or 4.75% of the total number of pupils, study in Ukrainian (for comparison: in the 2004/2005 school year, the total number of pupils studying in Ukrainian was 7,935, or 3.5%).

In the 2005/2006 school year, the number of classes with in-depth study of the Ukrainian language was 149 in 86 general education institutions with 3,571 pupils.

98 specialized classes of Ukrainian philology were opened in 83 secondary schools with a total enrollment of 2,363 students.

A gradual transition is underway to teaching a number of subjects (history of Ukraine, geography of Ukraine, the course "Defense of the Motherland") in Ukrainian at the request of students and their parents, provided that appropriate teaching and methodological and personnel support is available.

In 17 regions of the autonomy, preschool educational institutions have opened groups with education and training in the Ukrainian language.

Since 2004, the number of children in groups with Ukrainian as the language of education has increased by 9%. In the 2005/2006 school year it amounted to 1,536 children in 71 groups, or 3.7% of the total number of preschoolers attending preschool educational institutions (for comparison: in 2004 - 1,380 children in 66 groups)."

According to P. Volvach, "instead of the 140 Ukrainian-language schools declared for 2006, Crimea is starting the new year of 2007 with only 7 Ukrainian-language educational institutions, not all of which are functioning in normal conditions. The available material and technical base of most of them does not give grounds to call them full-fledged secondary educational institutions. And the 9,903 students who study in Ukrainian is as much as 4.75 percent of their total number."

The situation with higher education institutions in Crimea was much worse. According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, at the beginning of the 2006/2007 academic year, the ratio of students taught in Ukrainian and Russian was 3.1% in Ukrainian (352 students) to 96.9% in Russian (10,863 students) in Ukrainian accreditation levels I-II in the AR of Crimea. Only 2,895 students were taught in Russian in the city of Sevastopol.

Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Simferopol 

It should be noted that this school was the first to pave the way for Ukrainian-language education in Crimea during the time of independent Ukraine.  

Back in 1997, few people believed that there would be parents whose children would want to study in a Ukrainian school and teachers who would work there. Therefore, the premises were allocated "appropriate" - part of a former church that was not at all suitable for education. Many problems had to be solved: a shortage of textbooks and teaching aids, lack of desks, chairs, blackboards, desks for teachers, and visual aids. There was also no library, medical center, cafeteria, gym, or equipment.

A large group of enthusiasts from civic organizations and political parties joined the creation of the gymnasium. Many of them were later immortalized on the gymnasium tablets.

On September 1, 2004, the Ukrainian Gymnasium received a new modern building. The path to this was not easy: letters and appeals to all possible authorities from teachers, students and their parents, even a demonstration where the staff demanded human conditions for work.

The new building has all the conditions for students to learn: classrooms, computer labs, sewing and pottery workshops, a home economics classroom, two swimming pools, two gymnasiums - one for gymnastics and one for games, a 450-seat assembly hall, a dance classroom, a library with a reading room, video library and book depository, art studios, a dining room, and a radio station.

After school, students could attend any clubs and sections of their choice, including theater, dance, folklore, ceramics, embroidery, Ukrainian cuisine, pipers, bandura players, basketball, football, tourism, swimming, and many others.

High school students studied under programs in one of the chosen profiles: philology, economics, or sports. The Ukrainian Gymnasium sincerely honored the traditions of our nation and created its own "gymnasium" traditions, including commemorating the Holodomor victims (students lighting candles in the gymnasium yard), St. Andrew's Evenings, Winter Balls, making Christmas stars, Shevchenko Days, the master class "Let's Paint an Easter Egg!", and the annual prestigious Lastivka competition (which honored the best students, teachers, and staff of the gymnasium).

The Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Simferopol was probably one of the best in Ukraine in terms of educational conditions. It was rightfully very popular not only among the residents of Simferopol, but also in the suburban areas. The competition for admission (more than 5 students per place) was high. Not only ethnic Ukrainians, but also children of other nationalities studied there. In 2006-2007, the number of students in the gymnasium amounted to 830, against the norm of 672.

The students of the gymnasium have repeatedly won numerous republican and national competitions and Olympiads. The gymnasium hosted the final stage of the IV Petro Yatsyk International Ukrainian Language Competition, where awards were presented to Simferopol gymnasium students. Graduates of the gymnasium entered and successfully studied at the most prestigious universities in Crimea and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Simferopol was perhaps the only positive example of the state and Crimean authorities' proper care for the revival of Ukrainian education and culture in the autonomy during all the years of Ukraine's independence. 

Ukrainian school in Sevastopol 

In Sevastopol, the situation with Ukrainian-language education was even more depressing than in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. And this is quite understandable, since the status of "city of Russian glory" granted to it by Moscow did not provide for the study of languages other than Russian, even the state Ukrainian. For example, as of 2006, 701 pupils (2.2%) studied in the state language in Sevastopol, compared to 31,581 (97.8%) pupils in Russian secondary schools.

The only Ukrainian general education school of the I-III levels in Sevastopol, boarding school No. 7, was established in 1997 on the basis of vacant premises of kindergarten No. 69, primarily at the request of the Ukrainian Navy. The city's Taras Shevchenko Prosvita Society and the Ukrainian community of Sevastopol also contributed to its creation. At the time, the city did not find other premises for the Ukrainian school, but it was believed that this was temporary.

And in 1998, on the eve of his second term, President Leonid Kuchma solemnly laid the foundation stone for a Ukrainian school-college for 720 students. It would be the best school in Sevastopol, the president said at the time. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy also announced its patronage of the school-college. However, the stone was later stolen by vandals, Kuchma and the new leaders of Mohyla Academy forgot about their promises, and the only Ukrainian school continued to be crammed into a former kindergarten. 

According to Myroslav Mamchak, a well-known Ukrainian journalist, publicist and public figure, captain of the 1st rank, in his article "The destruction of Sevastopol school and education" published in the "Crimean Room", "when Viktor Yanukovych came to power in Ukraine, the "Tabachnikov" optimization of secondary schools began. Boarding school No. 7 in Sevastopol was the first to be "optimized" - right in the middle of the school year in October 2010, the first grade was closed with an official stroke of the pen!

Since then, despite the protests of parents and the Ukrainian community, attempts to get rid of the Ukrainian school in Sevastopol have continued. The number of students gradually decreased from 200 to 50. Many parents claimed that the education department deliberately reduced the number of students by refusing to accept applications for their children to attend the boarding school. The process of reducing the number of students was constantly accompanied not only by the closure of the first and subsequent grades, but also by the demand that parents transfer their children from the Ukrainian boarding school to other educational institutions. This issue was discussed several times at the board of the education department."

And so in April 2011, Mamchak notes in her article, "due to the lack of sufficient funds for maintenance (a little more than a million hryvnias per year is needed), the only Ukrainian school in Sevastopol was closed. For the Ukrainian community, the resolution of the Sevastopol City Council of April 10 to close the city's only Ukrainian secondary school of I-III levels, boarding school No. 7, was a kind of Easter "gift." News agencies gloated that "children from the Ukrainian boarding school will be transferred to boarding school No. 4, which was created for children with mental retardation."

Instead, after sending Ukrainian children to a "school for mentally retarded children," the city council approved the "Regional Program for the Development of the Russian Language and Russian Culture in Sevastopol for 2012-2016" at the same session. It turned out that, unlike the costly Ukrainian boarding school, the city's 2012 budget allocated one million hryvnias for this program: 778,000 hryvnias were allocated for Russian cultural activities, 128,000 for education, and 88,000 for support of Russian media and other needs of the "language." The session did not discuss support for the Ukrainian language at all."

As noted above, the issue of the construction of a new Ukrainian school-college moved forward in 1998, when for the first time the estimate for its construction was included in the city budget and the foundation stone was laid. However, it did not go further. And, according to Mamchak, only the appeal of the Third World Forum of Ukrainians in August 2001 to the President of Ukraine, letters from the Military Council of the Ukrainian Navy and the Ukrainian community to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine accelerated the construction process.

Active construction began in 2008, when Sergey Kunitsyn became the head of the Sevastopol State Administration. At that time, three floors of the building were erected, and it was announced that the educational process would begin on September 1, 2010. But when the "team of professionals" came to power, the construction of the Ukrainian school came to a standstill.

In contrast to the development of the Russian language, the 2012 Sevastopol budget did not provide any funds for the construction of a Ukrainian school-college."

Evidence of "care" Party of Regions about the future generation of citizens of the independent Ukrainian state, Mamchak notes, "is the deathly silence at the construction site and the overturned advertising poster in front of the long construction site."

It must be said that this unfinished building stood until 2018, after which the occupiers completely demolished it and began to build a new secondary school with "in-depth study of natural and mathematical disciplines" in its place.

This was the end of the formation of Ukrainian-language education in Sevastopol.