In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing The Battle for Ukrainian – A Comparative Perspective, edited by Michael S. Flier and Andrea Graziosi. The Battle for Ukrainian – A Comparative Perspective, published by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, outlines the difficult history of the Ukrainian language. In June 2014, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute organized a conference to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 1863 Valuev Circular, which repressed the use of Ukrainian in the Russian Empire. This volume is a compilation of the conference papers dealing with the linguistics, history, and politics of the Ukrainian language question.  Little did the conference organizers know, but in the very same year of 2014, Russia would once again violate Ukraine’s right to exist by annexing Crimea and supporting an insurgency in Eastern Ukraine. In 2022, Russia would use Russian language rights as an excuse to invade Ukraine. In the “Introduction,” the editors provide an overview of the history of The Battle for Ukrainian. The Valuev Circular of 1863, and the more brutal Ems Decree of 1876, were the tools used by the Imperial Russian government to destroy Ukrainian language evolution. The Russian Ministry of […]