In Odessa, a Ukrainian city, we speak Russian… tradition and instrumentalization
(BRUSSELS2 to Odessa) It is 23 p.m. The port city of Odessa, on the shores of the Black Sea, sinks into the night. The scarf is required in the upscale neighborhoods of the center of the “Saint Petersburg of the South” dreamed of by its founder, Catherine II, today in the hands of jet-set youth and their tinted katkats. The streets are illuminated by the incandescent lights and decorations of the many discotheques that enliven the nightlife. Beyond that, few onlookers and mostly extinguished streetlights. In the few bars still open, Russian is spoken.
When you arrive at the Yekaterynynska / Yekaterininskaya square (Russian or Ukrainian version of your choice), the central point of the city, Catherine The Great sits proudly with her hand outstretched in the direction of the port and the statue of the Duke of Richelieu, a French nobleman whom she collected and who was... the first governor of Odessa from 1803 to 1814. Pro-Russian and pro-Maidans demonstrations have been stirring since March, at a regular pace - every weekend - the streets of the regional capital. Symbols are thus attacked by political movements. The division, however, is misleading. Speaking Russian in Odessa does not mean wanting to leave Ukraine. Or at least not yet...
The Russian language is everywhere
"The language is being exploited in Ukraine to serve Russian interests" warns me a connoisseur of the region. In Odessa, you meet Russian everywhere: in the street, on advertisements and in discussions between people around cafes; on television, the films are subtitled in Russian, the interviews in the debates conducted in the language of the tsars. Even on the western-Ukrainian border, the Russian language is used by customs officials to talk to their Moldovan counterparts. Why pay for interpreters, when Russian makes it possible to be understood? It's a vernacular that the majority use... So where is Ukrainian? You see it on national advertising posters and in cinemas. That is just about everything. Besides, we would be mistaken. The difference between the two languages is difficult to notice for the uninitiated, Ukrainian and Russian having many common roots.
One State, several languages
"In fact, Ukrainian is a language that most people learn in class, in high school, but don't use it after". However, if there is a strong Russian culture, until now it was not linked to the feeling of belonging to Ukraine. Quite the contrary! “It is not because we speak Russian that we are pro-Russian”. Being Ukrainian also means being Russian-speaking and having spoken Russian for generations. " It was true in Odessa, Crimea and it is true in most of Ukraine”. OThis is far from the very French conception of the Nation with a territory, a language, a culture. It is therefore with other eyes that we must approach the history of the country. But times are changing. "Today, if some people talk in Ukrainian in the street, it's because they want to show it".
Political instrumentalization
Language gradually tends to become a separating factor. "Today we belong to such and such a political movement, because we speak Russian or Ukrainian" explains our guide. There is a claim to belonging, through language, which is being made. The first pro-Russian demonstrations thus began with the decision of the Ukrainian parliament to ban the status of the Russian language as a regional language. “Here, we did not understand this measure. We had to forget a language that we use every day and that we learn from generation to generation. It's not simple ".
(Loreline Merelle)
