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Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine is both a geopolitical and cultural civilizational confrontation. After all, it is not only an aggressor’s attempt to keep Ukraine in the sphere of its geopolitical captivity, preventing its integration with the West, but also another attempt to destroy our national and cultural identity. Under the tragic conditions of war, we bitterly recognise the consequences and results of the conscious Soviet era cultural policy of imposing russian culture, cultivating its iconic figures and achievements throughout the Soviet space, which literally denied or actively ignored national interests. Such propaganda was manifested in educational strategies, the ideology of geographical names, urban infrastructure, the formation of the so-called new community of “Soviet people”, language policy, particularly in the field of translation. The main factor in this purposeful programme of cultural neutralisation (actually colonisation) was russian culture and language, which are increasingly revealing their imperial nature and active violent instruments of absorption or displacement of other national cultures. At the same time, emphasizing its superiority, the russian language itself is losing its cultural potential and becoming a destructive phenomenon.
We are forced to claim that in the modern Ukrainian cultural and scientific space, the vast majority of various sources and studies are presented in the format of russian translations. Meanwhile, we understand that the language is a subtle, delicate and quite powerful tool for popularising and propagating the worldview paradigms of native language speakers. Ukrainian scholars and lecturers (especially in the humanities) have become hostages to a certain extent as the classic works of world culture, science and philosophy, providing the basis for modern domestic research and university courses, are mostly translated into russian and published by the aggressor’s publishers. The original texts are not always available though.
A nation’s strength is in its cultural and linguistic community. A modern nation is formed largely by the ability not only to focus on own traditions and nurture ethnic nature, but also the aptitude to master current cultural phenomena and its universal depth to be valuable to the outside world. In the conditions of military confrontation, the establishment and maintenance of a high-quality Ukrainian-speaking environment is not only an important component of nurturing cultural identity, but a necessary factor in reinforcing the country’s national security.
A necessary acknowledgement is that in this context, the book collections, especially those from university libraries, should undergo cultural expertise today on their ideological content, political affiliation, scientific or artistic value and compliance with the needs of the educational process in current socio-cultural situation.
Victoria HOLOVEI,
Professor of Cultural Studies;
Tamila PRYHODA,
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies