We know that a lot of folk say "many people in Ukraine speak Russian anyway".
Yes, they do.
Here is why:
1720 – Peter I's decree banning printing in the Ukrainian language and the seizure of Ukrainian church books.
1729 – Peter II ordered all government decrees and orders written in Ukrainian to be rewritten in Russian.
1763 – Catherine II banned teaching in Ukrainian at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
1764 – Catherine II ordered the russification of Ukraine.
1769 – The Russian Orthodox Church order the confiscation of Ukrainian primers and church books.
1775 – Cathetine II ordered the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich and closing of Ukrainian schools at the offices of the Cossack regiment.
1804 – according to a special royal decree in the Russian empire, all Ukrainian-language schools were banned, which led to the complete degradation of the Ukrainian population.
1832 – Reorganisation of education in Ukraine transformed all teaching into Russian language
1847 – Increased persecution of Ukrainian language and culture, the prohibition of the best works of Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov, among others.
1862 – Closing of Ukrainian Sunday schools for adults in the russified part of Ukraine.
1863 – Valuev Circular – a secret decree that prohibited censors from giving permission to the publication of Ukrainian spiritual and popular educational literature. It referred to Ukrainian as "a separate Little Russian language [that] never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist, and their [Little Russians] tongue used by commoners is nothing but Russian corrupted by the influence of Poland".
1864 – Adoption of a Charter which stated primary school education was to be conducted only in Russian.
1870 – Minister of Education of Russia states that "the ultimate goal of education for all inorodtsy (non-Russians, literally "people of other descent"), is unarguably their Russification.
1876 - Alexander II’s decree banning the printing and import from abroad of any Ukrainian literature, and to ban Ukrainian stage performances and Ukrainian lyrics in music scores and folk songs.
1881 – Prohibition of teaching in the public schools and conducting church sermons in Ukrainian.
1884 – The ban by Alexander III of Ukrainian theatre in all the provinces of “Little Russia”.
1888 – A decree by Alexander III banned the use of the Ukrainian language in official institutions and of Ukrainian given names.
1892 – Prohibition to translate books from Russian into Ukrainian.
1895 – Prohibition by the Main Administration of Printing to publish Ukrainian-language childrens' books.
1914, 1916 – Russification campaign in western Ukraine, the prohibition of the Ukrainian word, education, church.
Then, believe it or not, things did not get better under Stalin's rule.
Nearly 8 million Ukrainians were starved to death in the Holodomor genocide . That is a lot of Ukrainian speakers that could no longer pass on their language and culture.
This is by no means a complete history of the russification of Ukraine. Russia has been destroying the Ukrainian language and culture for over 350 years.
So yes, some Ukrainians are Russian-speakers.
But not by choice.
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