Contribution short abstract:

The war in Ukraine has changed perceptions of both the Ukrainian and Russian languages: Ukrainian as resistance and Russian as aligning with the Russian aggressor. This paper will explore the ideological dilemmas that Russian-speaking Ukrainians face when it comes to shedding their mother tongue.

Contribution long abstract:

What do Ukrainians feel when they hear Russian out in public? It depends on who you’re asking. Some have stated that it makes them angry and uncomfortable while others have asked, which Russian; Russian with the Moscow accents or with the Ukrainian accent? Russian-speaking Ukrainians have been making news headlines with their stories of shedding the Russian language in favour of Ukrainian. The position of the Ukrainian language has shifted in Ukrainian society as a language of nationality and most importantly, a language of resistance against Russia. However, languages cannot be abandoned so easily as many Ukrainians may hope it is. It is tangled in our identities, our relationships, and our memories. Therefore, Russian-speaking Ukrainians are in a predicament; do they abandon Russian in favour of ‘politically correct’ language or do they risk scrutiny for choosing to keep speaking a language that is now associated with the Russian aggressor? This paper brings forward an uncomfortable dilemma of whether or not to be tolerant of the Russian language when spoken in a Ukrainian community in Alberta, Canada. Through interviews and ethnographic research, the author will explore the current role of the Ukrainian language in regards to the Russo-Ukrainian war and how Russian-speaking Ukrainians are navigating their choice to fully-switch to Ukrainian or to speak Russian behind closed doors and how that has affected their perception of what it means to be Ukrainian in Ukraine and beyond its borders.