Description
This presentation will present the findings of opinion surveys conducted by the presenter in 2011 and 2021 among higher education students across Ukraine concerning the respondents’ attitudes towards the narratives projected by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
Given the annexation of Crimea and the military support to separatists in the Donbas region, it is unlikely to incite surprise that the survey findings show a marked deterioration in the degree of acceptance of Russian perspectives on a range of issues related to culture, values, foreign policy and the general socio-economic attraction of the Russian Federation.
Yet this presentation will strive to provide a broader context to these shifts by exploring changes in Ukrainian policy in the sphere of cultural, linguistic and information sovereignty and security. Legislative changes related to documents such as the ‘strategy of national-patriotic education’ (2019), the ‘strategy for the promotion of the Ukrainian language until 2030 "Strong language - a successful state" (2020), the law ‘on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language’ (2019) and the amended law ‘on television and radio broadcasting’ have impacted the ability of Russian positions to be reproduced and disseminated in Ukrainian media and education, and sought to promote Ukrainian cultural narratives, political positions, and language.
The impact of such policy measures, as attested to by my findings and reflected in other opinion polls, is a powerful indicator of the sustainability of Ukraine’s Westward geopolitical choice.
