Poltavets Tetiana

Bilingualism as a Factor in Expanding the Russian Federation Information Aggreession Against Ukraine

Abstract: Some unresolved problems and shortcomings in Ukraine language policy which partly abetted the Russian information aggression against Ukraine, are highlighted. The factor of bilingualism as a characteristic of Ukrainian society was used by the Russian Federation as a cause to expand propaganda that promotes an idea of defending Russian world, and this factor is considered as the main argument for Russia to justify own military actions against Ukraine in the eyes of Russian people. The very fact that Ukrainian language in Ukraine was granted the status of state language, has not solved the problem of actual bilingualism, and lack of state control over implementation of the relevant law prolonged the mode to treat Ukrainian language as one of the lesser value, secondary, if to compare with Russian language, which was common for Soviet reality. For its part, the Russian Federation, for many years, with a view on certain part of Ukrainian people, and not only Ukrainian but other post-Soviet states as well, led the policy aimed at raising the feeling of their involvement in the Russian culture space. Subsequently, it was turned into the ground for developing their emotional depending on Russian and Russian-speaking information flows, and it has contributed to making the web of Russian world. The particular success of that policy in Ukraine concerns directly with local authorities policy which was uncertain and vague, in the sense that there wasn’t any adequate response to the challenges which after 2014 could be considered as an information war elements. While using manipulation techniques mostly in information space and media, the Russian Federation disseminates on occupied territories of Ukraine ukrainofobia and separatism, encourages division of people into Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking ones, harassment of those who speak Ukrainian. As a result of such a policy, the hostility between the Russian Federation and non-Russian world increases.

Keywords: information aggression, Ukrainian language, bilingualism, language conflicts, Russian world.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/np.61.063     Citation

• Poltavets Tetiana (V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Ukraine, Kyiv) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3737-9168

Cite:
Poltavets Tetiana (2021). Bilingualism as a Factor in Expanding the Russian Federation Information Aggreession Against Ukraine. Academic Papers of The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, (61) 63-78. (In Ukrainan). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/np.61.063

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