Bus drivers will no longer be able to play popular Russian songs in their vehicles. Bookstores that will sell books in the Russian language will be excluded from a financial aid program.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Imports of books by contemporary Russian authors will be prohibited. Russian artists will be banned from Ukrainian stages and media unless they publicly denounce their country’s war against Ukraine.
A series of laws passed last Sunday by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, aim to both support the country’s culture and punish Moscow for its invasion.
“We want to break with the contemporary Russian universe in every possible way, not so much with the Russian language as with the cultural products of Russia,” says MP Volodymyr Ariev.
PHOTO FROM WIKICOMMONS
Volodymyr Ariev, Ukrainian MP
The latter was on a business trip to France during the vote, but he supports 100% the three laws adopted without a single voice of opposition. Before coming into force, they still need to be approved by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This legislative triptych aims first and foremost to support Ukrainian cultural production, but it is also a response to the war, underlines Taras Shamayda, who campaigned in favor of the new legislation.
Even before the war, the Ukrainian book market had to struggle against the influence of its powerful neighbour, in this country where the vast majority of readers speak both languages.
“Now the publishers of books in the Ukrainian language will be supported”, applauds Taras Shamayda.
The law applies to writers and artists who are citizens of the Russian Federation, and therefore does not apply to books written before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Books by Tolstoy and Pushkin can still be purchased in their original language.
The new legislation also targets international literature, which can be translated into Ukrainian, into one of Ukraine’s other national languages, such as Tatar, or into one of the languages of the European Union. Translations into Russian are banned.
Ukrainian authors who write in Russian will still have the right to publish in that language, but their books will end up in unsubsidized bookstores.
It is a reaction against the war, and this war is an identity war, Russia wants to destroy our nation, we want to protect ourselves.
Volodymyr Ariev, Ukrainian MP
Normal, in this context, to ban artists from Moscow, he believes. He cites the example of Adolf Hitler’s favorite director, the German Leni Riefenstahl.
“I don’t think we would have allowed his films to be shown in England at the time. »
Understandable reaction
At first glance, these defensive cultural laws seem draconian, notes Dominique Arel, director of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa.
But you have to put them in context, he says. And this context is that of an invasion that seeks to annihilate Ukrainian culture.
[L’envahisseur russe] does not only call for the elimination of the Ukrainian identity, it puts in force de facto policies of “déukrainisation” in the cities which it occupies.
Dominique Arel, Director of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa
In these occupied areas, we are witnessing the elimination of any symbol, book or teaching of Ukrainian history.
PHOTO IVAN ALVARADO, REUTERS ARCHIVES
A book titled Guide to‘audition in english lies on the floor of a school destroyed by shelling in Kharkiv.
“In response, Ukraine is seeking to cut all ties with Russia,” said Dominique Arel.
Before Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, around 50% of the Ukrainian population spoke Russian more fluently than Ukrainian. Today, the proportion is more like 40% Russian-speakers against 60% Ukrainian-speakers.
At a time when Ukraine is beginning its process of joining the European Union, aren’t these three laws likely to contravene European requirements for the protection of minorities?
“We are not banning the Russian language, we are blocking Russia’s cultural industry,” said Taras Shamayda.
The approach must be placed in a historical context of “decommunization” which could go much further, observes the Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, editor-in-chief of the information site Ukraine World.
Russia wanted to erase Ukrainian culture from the 19th centurye century, then under Stalin.
Volodymyr Yermolenko, editor-in-chief of the Ukraine World news site
From the start of the Donbass war in 2014, Ukraine understood that Russia wanted to “recommunize” it, according to Volodymyr Yermolenko. In response, Kyiv has accelerated a process it describes as “decommunization”.
Since February 24, the process has intensified. “Russian rockets target cultural objectives, museums, libraries, theaters,” argues Volodymyr Yermolenko.
PHOTO ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Mariupol theater destroyed by Russian strikes
“And culture is the heart of a nation. »
These days, Ukrainians are planning to rename many streets or public buildings by giving them the name of Ukrainians.
In particular, there is talk of changing the name of the Tchaikovsky Academy of Music to that of its founder, the Ukrainian musician Mykola Lyssenko – a project that is far from unanimous.
Volodymyr Yermolenko supports this proposal. “We have nothing against Tchaikovsky, we are against the erasure of our culture. »