Throughout its history, Ukraine has often been divided and shared by multiple other states. Regardless, Russian rule was always the most oppressive and the Ukrainian language was not exempt from the tyrant's tight grip.
In this article, we have gathered the most notorious examples of Russia's linguicidal practices, which are primarily intended to erase Ukrainian identity. Despite changes in governments, country names, and rule forms, Ukrainian linguicide exists and persists today.
The Cossack-Polish War began in 1648, led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included Ukraine since 1569. At the time, many European countries were entering a period of forming national states, so such sociopolitical movements were common.
Despite his early successes, Khmelnytskyi needed allies, and in 1654 he signed an agreement with the Moscow Tsar, the originals of which mysteriously did not survive. This allowed Muscovy to manipulate subsequent Hetmans and establish a protectorate over the Hetmanate. This resulted in the suppression of Ukrainian literature, culture, and education, with the cultural centre eventually moving to Russian territory.
Given that education and culture at the time were centred on monasteries and religious figures, the repression began with church literature.
1627: Moscow Tsar Mikhail orders the destruction of all copies of K. Stavrovetskyi's "Didactic Gospel", which were printed in Ukraine, accusing it of heresy. The Tsar's decree also prohibited the purchase and possession of any "Lithuanian-printed" books, with the threat of public physical punishment and the Patriarch's curse. However, Ukrainian historian Mykola Kostomarov attributed this situation to Moscow scribes' ignorance: "The evaluation of this work was entrusted to two Moscow scribes... Without knowing the language in which the South-Russian writer's work was written, they found heretical meaning in grammatical features and incomprehensible words."
1690: The Moscow Synod imposed an "anathema" on the books of prominent scholars and church leaders (Petro Mohyla, Kyrylo Stavrovetskyi, Lazar Baranovych, Yoanikii Galyatovskyi, and others) written in Old Ukrainian. Later, some of these books served as the foundation for patristic literature in Muscovy and the Russian Empire.
1708: Alexander Menshikov, on orders from Peter I, burns down Baturyn, destroying Hetman Ivan Mazepa's large library.
1718: A fire broke out at the Kyiv-Pechersk monastery. Historian Ihor Hyrych wrote in his article, citing eyewitness accounts, that the fire was started by Moscow emissaries disguised as monks in order to destroy numerous documents from the 11th to 17th centuries. As a result of the fire, the "written memory of the Lavra's independent Ukrainian political and spiritual life" was lost. The historian believes this was a planned operation by the Russian Tsar, as no other disaster in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra's history has caused as much damage to its unique written heritage as this fire.
In 1720, Peter I issued decrees censoring books ready for publication in the Kyiv-Pechersk and Chernihiv printing presses, as well as standardising publication language to match Russian synodal versions.
A year later, by Peter I's decision, the Moscow Tsardom appropriated the name of the former Ukrainian state, Rus, and declared itself the Russian Empire (the Greek name for Rus is "Rosía"). This was done to present Muscovy as more closely related to Europe, claiming continuity and power by appropriating the Ukrainian state and merging the two nations (Ukrainian and Russian). Let us recall that at the time, Peter I was actively "opening a window to Europe" since Muscovy was remarkably illiterate and uneducated compared to other European countries of the time.
Following the proclamation of the Russian Empire, Russian emperors' policies towards Ukraine became even harsher. Catherine II abolished the Hetmanate in 1764, and in 1775, she ordered the destruction of the Zaporizhzhian Sich to fully integrate Ukrainian lands into the empire, which impacted cultural policy.
1763: Catherine II issues a decree prohibiting Ukrainian language instruction at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
1769: The Moscow Synod prohibits the publication of "Little Russian" primers and orders the confiscation of previously printed ones.
1784: A circular is issued prohibiting lectures in Ukrainian at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and establishing Russian as the official language in all imperial schools. Censors used secret circulars to remove references to the Ukrainian language and people from historical documents.
1789: The "Comparative Dictionary of All Languages" was published at the initiative of Catherine II. It depicts the Ukrainian language as a corrupted version of Russian influenced by Polish. This myth, created by the Russian empress in the 18th century, is still spread by Russians today, as evidenced by Putin's speeches: "You see, until the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, we had no linguistic differences. And only as a result of Polonization did some Ukrainians living under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth begin to develop linguistic differences around the 16th century."
1847: The arrest of members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius signalled the start of an intensified persecution of the Ukrainian language and culture. Nicholas I issued an order prohibiting the sale of Shevchenko's Kobzar, as well as works by Mykola Kostomarov, Panteleimon Kulish, and other Ukrainian historians.
1859: A censorship directive states that "works written in "the little Russian dialect", intended specifically for distribution among the common people, should only be printed in Russian letters."
July 30, 1863: Interior Minister Pyotr Valuyev issued the Valuyev Circular
, which banned the Ukrainian language, claiming that "there never was, is not, and cannot be any separate little Russian language," and that "their dialect, used by the common folk, is the same Russian language, only corrupted by Polish influence."
1876: Russian Emperor Alexander II signs the Ems Ukaz
, which extends the Valuev Circular. The decree prohibited the import of Ukrainian books and pamphlets from other countries into the Russian Empire, as well as publishing original works or translations in Ukrainian (except for historical documents and monuments, which had to retain their original spelling) or writing fiction (but only in the generally accepted Russian orthography, not Ukrainian). In addition, Ukrainian plays and readings, and even the printing of Ukrainian musical notation texts, were banned in Ukraine.
1911: The VII Nobility Congress in Moscow passed a resolution mandating exclusively Russian-language education and prohibiting the use of other languages in educational institutions throughout the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church Synod also issued a resolution ordering the removal from libraries, schools, and reading rooms - and from sale of the St. Petersburg editions of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar. In a state where Ukrainians were the second-largest nation, books in Ukrainian became rare.
1914: Nicholas II issued a decree banning the Ukrainian press.
In 1922, The Ukrainian People's Republic was conquered by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which, like other Russian Empire countries, declared independence following the 1917 October Revolution. As a result, the Soviet Union, led by Vladimir Lenin, was formed. The Soviet Union was often referred to as "a prison of nations" because, formally, it was a union of various countries with equal rights, but in reality, the Russian Republic was the dominant power, and Russians controlled the central government offices.
1933: The Soviet government changed Ukrainian spelling to make it more similar to Russian.
Symbolically, the destruction of the Ukrainian language began at the peak of the Holodomor, when the majority of Ukrainian language speakers - peasants - were killed.
May 24, 1964: One of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine's employees deliberately set fire to the repository. According to official data, nearly 388,000 storage units were lost. Several factors point to the operation's planned nature, including the fact that water was turned off on the eve of the fire in the area where the library was located, delaying and complicating firefighting efforts.
1984: Teachers of Russian in the Ukrainian SSR began receiving salaries 15% higher than those teaching Ukrainian.
Even after the collapse of the USSR (1991), when Ukraine gained independence and began forming its own state policies, Russia continued to interfere in Ukrainian domestic affairs, attempting to manipulate language policy and imposing the Russian language on the independent Ukrainian state.
2009: The then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued an open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, accusing him of "pushing the Russian language out of public life, science, education, culture, and the media."
2012: Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed the law "On the Principles of State Language Policy", while pro-Russian Yanukovych was President. The law introduced the concept of regional languages, allowing Russian to gain dominance in Russified Ukrainian cities by allowing its use "in the work of local government bodies, local self-government, state and communal educational institutions, and in other areas of public life."
Since the start of Russian aggression in 2014, forced Russification has advanced rapidly in Ukrainian-occupied territories. For example, one of the first orders issued by the "mayor of Horlivka" focused on making "Russian the primary language in schools, banning Ukrainian," and replacing Ukrainian signs with Russian ones. Russia maintained this strategy in the territories occupied in 2022. It launched a new programme that prohibited the use of Ukrainian in classrooms and required the use of books that justified the Russian invasion and portrayed Ukraine as a "neo-Nazi state." In addition, Russia funded 360 million rubles for the elimination of Ukrainian books from libraries in occupied territories.
On May 23, 2024, Russia launched missiles at Kharkiv, striking "Factor-Druk," one of the largest printing complexes in Europe. The attack occurred a week before the International "Book Arsenal" Festival, just as employees at "Factor-Druk" were finishing printing dozens of "new releases" that were to be presented at the festival.
Despite Russia's 400-year-long systematic attempts to destroy the Ukrainian language, ban Ukrainian literature, and violently eradicate any mention of it, they continue to exist and develop. According to Duolingo, more than 1.3 million people were eager to learn Ukrainian in 2022, and in 2023, the Ukrainian language remained one of the most popular languages for study on the platform.
