The Development Dynamics of National Minorities and Ethnic Groups in Ukraine at the early XXIst Century

Author

Borysenko Valentyna

a Doctor of History, professor, Head of the Archival  Scientific Funds of Manuscripts and Audio-Recordings Department of the NASU M. Rylskyi IASFE

The Development Dynamics of National Minorities and Ethnic Groups in Ukraine at the early XXIst Century

Abstract

The problem of integration of national communities of nonethnic origin into the Ukrainian society is considered in the article. Since the Soviet times a myth about 130 nations has been actively developed in Ukraine. Mainly separate representatives of different ethnic groups staying in the country for various reasons have been attracted. The purpose was to urge the world that Ukrainians can’t pretend to their independence and autonomy. However, national consciousness of most of the population and statistical data demonstrate decisively that according to the remote population census of 2002 about 80% of Ukrainians live in Ukraine, and current sociological researches show that now it is approximately 90 %.  In Ukraine there are lots of small ethnic communities – migrants of the USSR, when population has been intentionally mixed up for the creation of all-Soviet community of the USSR.

In the course of history, military resistance and political ambitions of some “leaders” the Ukrainian people without their consent have been repeatedly deported, resettled, forced to leave their homes.  At the same time the enclaves have been occurred, mainly on the borderlands. They included nonethnic population which still lives on the territory of Ukraine. Their density, long time of living and maintenance of their national identity allow to define several national minorities in Ukraine. Conveniently they may be classified as Russian, Moldovan, Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian ethnic communities.  Ukraine makes great efforts to provide cultural and educational requirements of the national minorities. They are represented at all levels of the executive and legislative branches. They have the same rights as other citizens of Ukraine and there isn’t any oppression on ethnic grounds against them. Also there are other small ethnic groups living previously in towns and trying to organize their cultural societies; Ukraine maintains their interests as well. Among them we may mention the Jewish, Poles, Armenians, Greeks etc. They are Russified considerably, lost their native language and now the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine helps them to revive their forgotten language through publication of school books and dictionaries at public expense. However tolerant attitude of Ukrainian people is not enough to integrate ethnic communities into Ukrainian society. It is necessary to pay more attention to mutual study of cultures and learn state language which affords the opportunities for the development of all ethnic minorities.

Keywords

Ukrainians, ethnic groups, national minorities, integration, falsification, Declaration of the Rights of Nationalities, education, culture.

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