[EDLING:85] Russian language in retreat in Ukraine

[Francis M. Hult]

The New Hope Courier

Russian language in retreat in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine - The fidgeting, wide-eyed girls and boys squeezed around a table 
in Elizaveta Moklyak‘s kindergarten class are helping lead a cultural and 
political revolution. 

Sixteen years after shrugging off Moscow‘s rule, Ukraine is reclaiming a 
language that — like scores of other local languages across the former 
U.S.S.R. — the Soviet leadership once disdained as inferior to Russian. 

Just two years ago, some Russian speaking regions in eastern Ukraine talked of 
secession, fearing dominance by Ukrainian-speakers in the west. The language 
debate was one of the most divisive of the 2004 Orange Revolution, which helped 
oust Ukraine‘s pro-Moscow leadership. 

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