The Policy of Russianization of Ukraine and Other European Territories of Russian Empire: Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to study the assimilative practices of the Russian Empire concerning Ukrainians and other peoples of Europe subdued by the imperial power. For this aim, the motives of the ruling coterie of the Empire for the assimilation of Ukrainians are defined, assimilation practices in ‘non-Russian’ regions – Poland, the Baltic territories, Bessarabia – are analyzed, the peculiar features of the restrictive policy in Ukraine are shown, and the methods of Russification in Ukraine are compared with other lands under the control of the Romanovs.

The scientific novelty of the paper is in conducting a comparative analysis of the application of the Russianization policy in the subdued by Russia Ukraine with similar processes in the rest of the European lands annexed by Russia.

Conclusions. The analysis made it possible to draw several conclusions. The beginning of the nationwide policy of Russianization with ideological substantiation and practical implementation should be dated to the era of Catherine II. Policy tightening in the second half of the 19^th century became the reaction of the imperial leadership to the ‘Spring of Nations’ in Europe. Due to its openly propagandistic nature, the ideology of the ‘triune Russian nation’ had become unsustainable. This was understood by its main apologists, who treated Ukrainians not as ‘people of their kind’, but as ‘non-Russians’.

A comparison of assimilation measures toward European peoples in the Russian Empire revealed similar methods, results, and common problems. The Russianization of Ukrainians was almost identical to the assimilation practices of the Poles and the Baltic peoples. Exceptions included the absence of the need to translate the grammar into Cyrillic instead of Latin and the convenient ideological phantom of the ‘united Russian people’. Resorting to slogans about the ‘unified Russian nation’ or attacks on the very idea of loyalty of ‘non-Russians’ to the Empire without loyalty to the Russian language and culture revealed the real goal of Russianization – the strengthening of autocratic power, the elimination of the remnants of autonomy, and the unification of the vast territories of the Empire under the rule of the Emperor. However, in the end, the policy of tsarysm had managed to turn only some of the subdued peoples’ elite into a ‘Russian element’. The forms of its implementation separated the broad masses of the people from the aristocratic elites loyal to the Emperor. Attempts to spread Russianization to the broad masses of the people and to suppress intellectual activity in local languages failed. The analyzed processes of the imperial era have a hangover in the politics of the modern Russian Federation.