Russia’s Imperial Policies in Ukraine in mid-19th century - Analysis through the Works of Taras Shevchenko

shchegelolena 세계문학비교학회 2017 世界文學比較硏究 Vol.59 No.-

This paper analyzes Russian imperial policies in Ukraine in the mid-19th century. It analyzes poems by Taras Shevchenko and through the analysis of the texts aims to show how the poet portrayed Russia’s policies of the time. The paper is divided into two main chapters one of which discusses what kind of policies were dominant at the time when Shevchenko lived, while the other concentrates on the text analysis itself. In the first part of this paper, I argue that slogan elaborated by the minister of education of the Russian Empire, Sergey Uvarov, 'Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality' became an ideological foundation for imperial policies of enserfment and Russification from the third decade of the nineteenth century. I suggest that these three concepts, or they are also called, the triad are interconnected as Orthodoxy and nationality become, in Uvarov's interpretation, indispensable for autocracy to survive. I find the concept of nationality be immensely important because in the world where ideas of the French Revolution gain further more popularity, Russia tries to block these ideas with substituting European concept of nationality with the Russian one – which does not acknowledge the right for self-identification for all nations but creates a notion of 'official nationality', the Russian one. I further argue that such concept of nationality was utilized to justify the policy of Russification within the Empire. In the second part of this paper I concentrate of how imperial policies are reflected in the works of Shevchenko and show through the analysis of his texts that he used satire and ridicule to condemn such policies and urged Ukrainians to rise against the tsarism in order to build their own Ukrainian state. Ideal form of government for Shevchenko was democratic republic and he looked up to the United States as an example.

Russia as surreal space in literary works of Taras Shevchenko

shchegelolena 한국외국어대학교(글로벌캠퍼스) 동유럽발칸연구소 2014 동유럽발칸연구 Vol.38 No.3

This paper addresses the question of how the space of Russia in general and St.Petersburg in particular is depicted in Taras Shevchenko's worksThis paper discusses how the space of Russia is represented in Taras Shevchenko's poetry. It argues that although Russia's image is often vague and ambiguous to the extent of surrealistic it is a latently present at the background of many Shevchenko's poems and influences perception of other kinds of space as well the understanding of Shevchenko's literary universe in whole. After a short overview of previous research, the paper introduces different types of literary space that can be differentiated in Shevchenko's poetic works and provides a brief explanation on each of them. The urban space of St.Petersburg is analyzed as the 'anti-world' which is counterpositioned with that of the 'real world' of Ukraine. The paper examines symbolic connections of Shevchenko's St.Petersburg with Ukrainian folklore and emphasizes the infernality of the former. The last part of the paper analyzes the image of Russia in Shevchenko's works to find out that the larger space of Russia has similar surreal qualities to those of a smaller space which St. Petersburg is. At the same time, Russia is presented in Shevchenko's works as a profane space to which spiritual decline, evilness and amorality are intrinsic.

Korean proper nouns in Ukrainian press: The case of Uriadovyi Kurier (1991-1996)

shchegelolena 아시아중동부유럽학회 2012 동유럽발칸학 Vol.14 No.1

This paper focuses on the analysis of Korean proper nouns and their functioning in Ukrainian language through the prism of texts printed in the Ukrainian newspaper Uriadovyi Kurier in 1991-1996. With Ukrainian independency Ukraine’s relations with other countries have become more active and dynamic which in its turn has led to increase of loanwords in Ukrainian language. This paper concentrates on Korean loanwords, namely proper nouns, as this area of study still lacks much needed attention, mostly because there are not many specialists in this area. Attention is focused on how Korean proper nouns are rendered in Uriadovyi Kurier. The aim is to find out which Korean proper nouns were used in Ukrainian language at the time, frequency of their use, problems in phonetic and orthographic adaptation into Ukrainian language and to provide propositions as to possible solutions to these problems.

Language Situation in Post‐soviet Kyiv: Surzhyk as sociolinguistic phenomenon and its perception by Kyivites

shchegelolena 한국외국어대학교(글로벌캠퍼스) 동유럽발칸연구소 2011 동유럽발칸연구 Vol.27 No.1

This paper focuses on the language situation in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, twenty years after the country has become independent. It concentrates on perception of Russian and Ukrainian languages by Kyivites and makes special accent on their perception of such sociolinguistic phenomena as surzhyk. Through looking at the roots of surzhyk in Ukraine and using the data gathered through detailed survey conducted in Kyiv this paper distinguishes major tendencies among educated Kyivites in their perception of current language situation in Ukraine as well as their understanding and perception of surzhyk. Attention is focused on how linguists and common people understand surzhyk, and whether their approaches coincide. Also, the paper analyzes how Kyivites percept the situation of bilingualism that still exists in Kyiv even after twenty years of country’s independence and what their desires for future generations are from the point of view of language. The paper shows that despite the fact that after twenty years of independence the Ukrainian language still strives for taking its niche as the commonly spoken language in Ukraine, many Ukrainians (specifically Kyivites on whom this research concentrates) see it as a language of the future which can been clearly seen from their desire that their children speak the language. Moreover, the survey finds that Ukrainians strive for their language to be pure and correct which reveals itself from their perception and evaluation of surzhyk as impure language of poorly educated people. This paper focuses on the language situation in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, twenty years after the country has become independent. It concentrates on perception of Russian and Ukrainian languages by Kyivites and makes special accent on their perception of such sociolinguistic phenomena as surzhyk. Through looking at the roots of surzhyk in Ukraine and using the data gathered through detailed survey conducted in Kyiv this paper distinguishes major tendencies among educated Kyivites in their perception of current language situation in Ukraine as well as their understanding and perception of surzhyk. Attention is focused on how linguists and common people understand surzhyk, and whether their approaches coincide. Also, the paper analyzes how Kyivites percept the situation of bilingualism that still exists in Kyiv even after twenty years of country’s independence and what their desires for future generations are from the point of view of language. The paper shows that despite the fact that after twenty years of independence the Ukrainian language still strives for taking its niche as the commonly spoken language in Ukraine, many Ukrainians (specifically Kyivites on whom this research concentrates) see it as a language of the future which can been clearly seen from their desire that their children speak the language. Moreover, the survey finds that Ukrainians strive for their language to be pure and correct which reveals itself from their perception and evaluation of surzhyk as impure language of poorly educated people.

Ukraine: Rethinking the Second World War and the Victory

shchegelolena 한국외국어대학교(글로벌캠퍼스) 동유럽발칸연구소 2015 동유럽발칸연구 Vol.39 No.3

This paper discusses how Ukraine has been observing May 9 as a Victory Day throughout its history. The paper looks into the origins of the name ‘the Great Patriotic War’ and through analysis of newspaper articles of the relevant period aims to find out why this name was invented in the first place and how it was different from the term ‘the Second World War’. The introduction offers an insight into what kind of problems concerning the WWII and victory in it Ukraine was left with after the collapse of the Soviet Union and why it needs to rethink its perception of the meaning of the two. The second chapter deals with the Soviet terminology for the war and victory, arguing that such expressions as ‘the Great Patriotic War’, ‘victorious Soviet (or Russian) people’ etc. were used by the Stalin’s propaganda in order to consolidate various nations of the Soviet Union in the fight against Germany and to emphasize the leading role of Russians in the struggle not only against Fascist Germany but also in past struggles against foreign invaders throughout the centuries. This part of the paper also proves that in order to not only highlight heroism of the Russians as a nation but also to boost the army’s morale the Kremlin ideologists used references to the ‘glorious past’, especially, to defeat of Napoleon in 1812 war and aimed to transfer perceptions and emotions associated with that war onto the Russian-German war in 1941. The third chapter looks into the history of celebrating the Victory Day in Ukraine and shows how Ukraine has come from Soviet-style celebration to more European-style commemoration. It also points out that despite the recent change in official perception of the war and the Victory Day it is still too early to talk about unambiguous cognition of the two by the Ukrainians and thus calls for balanced approach that would help consolidate the nation. The conclusions summarize the history of celebrating the Victory Day in Ukraine by dividing them into five major periods. Based on materials discussed in two previous chapters, this part of the paper offers peculiarities and distinct features for each of the five periods.

Russia's Propaganda during the 2013-2014 Maidan Protests and the Crimean Crisis

shchegelolena 한국외국어대학교(글로벌캠퍼스) 동유럽발칸연구소 2014 동유럽발칸연구 Vol.38 No.6

This paper aims to focus on the Russia’s propaganda during 2013-2014 Ukrainian crisis, also known as Euromaidan or Maidan as well as on its information warfare prior and during the annexation of the Crimean peninsula. This paper discusses what role 2nd generation information warfare with the emphasis on propaganda played in annexation of Crimea which happened basically without a single gunshot and as well as in portraying the situation during the Maidan crisis that began since November 2013. After a short introduction into the notion of propaganda and how it was used throughout history, especially in the Soviet Russia, the paper draws parallels between the Soviet and Putin’s regimes and shows that both regimes often used same methods to distribute one-sided messages among the populace with the emphasis on Putin’s control over media sources which allows him to transmit only messages favorable for the Kremlin. Chapter Three of this paper shows how Russia’s propaganda worked during the Maidan crisis through concrete examples of Russian media using various propaganda techniques including appeal to authority, appeal to fear, selective truth, demonizing the enemy, disinformation, lying and deception, oversimplification, quotes out of context, stereotyping and others. The paper discusses how information warfare made it possible for Russia to annex the Crimea peninsula relatively peacefully and how Russia’s informational, intelligence, military (though not officially admitted by Russia) and financial involvement led to proclamation of independence by Crimea and its further merge into Russian Federation. The conclusions include the diagram of the warfare Russia has been using in Ukraine as well as the author’s remarks on further possible development of the situation based on the analysis of Russia’s SIW we have witnessed thus far.

The Russo-Japanese War and its Effects on Ukraine

shchegelolena 한국외국어대학교(글로벌캠퍼스) 동유럽발칸연구소 2016 동유럽발칸연구 Vol.40 No.6

The article examines the influence of the Russo-Japanese war onto Ukraine and the changes in Russian policies towards Ukraine after its defeat in the war. While historians have discussed effects the war had on Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States there have been no previous studies on the influence of the Russo-Japanese war on Ukraine. The paper approaches the subject from two points – direct and indirect. With help of the former approach the article discusses how Ukrainians participated in the war and how they perceived it, while the latter one discusses how the Russo-Japanese war catalyzed social unrest in the Russian Empire thus accelerating the onset of the revolution and giving rise to Ukrainian national and cultural movement. The research shows that the war was highly unpopular among the Ukrainian population albeit far more often for personal reasons than for political ones. It also concludes that political changes that were triggered by the Russo-Japanese war had tremendous impact onto Ukraine but were short-lived and were followed by harsh counterrevolutionary imperial policies.