1. UKRAINE'S ETHNIC MINORITIES: BETWEEN POLITICS AND
REALITY
The designation of Ukraine as "a country with a multiethnic population" in my
opinion, is altogether an objective one. It realistically reflects the ethnic structure of
Ukrainian society, which is composed of the Ukrainian nation and ethnic minorities
representing more than 120 ethnic groups (ethnos). Inasmuch as the nation is one of
the forms in which an ethnic group1 exists, it follows that all the structural elements
of ethnic hierarchy (ethnic group–ethnic minority–nation–ethnos) are one-
dimensional in the sense of how they function as human communities existing in
concrete social-historical conditions. In order to determine the real condition of
Ukraine's ethnic minorities and the principles of state policy, it is important to bear in
mind the basic parameters and characteristics of the concept ''ethnic minority":
1. An ethnic minority is a sui generis variant of a human community which is
based on common descent, and whose members share common linguistic and
cultural features, psychological orientations and an awareness of belonging to
that community;
2. The primary condition of the functioning of an ethnic minority as a coherent
structure is its interaction with other ethnic groups living in the same country,
and it is in the process of this interaction that the formula "we–they" acquires
concrete expression;
3. The functions of an ethnic minority as a coherent structural unit in a polyethnic
society (in particular, the reconstruction of a specific ethno-cultural milieu and
the creation of conditions for a comfortable coexistence and interaction with
the dominant ethnic group) are performed by groups, organizations, and
associations, educational and cultural institutions, mass media, etc.;
4. The vitality of an ethnic group and its prospects for development depend on
two groups of factors–internal (the size of the group, the existence of a certain
social structure, an adequate level of institutional completeness) and external
(the state's policy toward ethnic minorities, the limits of possible ties with the
1
S. A. Arutiunov, Narody i kultury. Razvitie i vzaimodeistvie kul'tur (Moskva, 1989), 21-24. (S. A. Arutiunov, Peoples
and cultures. The development and the interaction of the cultures (Moscow, 1989), 21-24).

2. corps of the respective ethnos, the state of interethnic relations in the country
of residence).
Certain intimations of the formulation of the model of the Ukrainian policy on
minorities may be discovered in the socio-political life of our country in recent years.
First, one should mention Ukraine's National Minorities Law, which creates the legal
basis for meeting the concerns of minorities and which also establishes the principles
of the state's relations with ethnic minorities. In this context Articles 1 and 6 are
particularly important:
Article 1. Ukraine guarantees to the citizens of the Republic, irrespective of their
ethnic origin, equal political, social, economic and cultural rights and freedoms, and it
supports the development of national self-awareness and self-expression. All citizens
of Ukraine enjoy the protection of the state on an equal basis.
Article 6. The state guarantees to all national minorities the right to national and
cultural autonomy: the use of and education in their native language or the study of
the ethnic language in state educational institutions or through national cultural
societies; the development of national cultural traditions, the use of national symbols,
the celebration of national holidays, the practice of religion, the pursuit of cultural
endeavors (literature, art, the mass media), the establishment of national cultural and
educational institutions, and any other activity which does not contradict existing
legislation...."2
Among the other legal documents forming the basis of the Ukrainian state's policy
on ethnic minorities, it is worth mentioning the Ukrainian laws "On Languages in the
Ukrainian SSR" and "Principles of Ukraine's Legislation on Culture."
These laws demonstrate that a legislative basis for official ethnopolitics is being
developed in Ukraine, which undoubtedly is stimulating the vitalization of the ethno-
cultural life of ethnic minorities. This is specifically expressed by: (a) the activity of
national cultural societies (in early 1995 there were 237 such groups, including 16
operating throughout Ukraine); (b) the organization of cultural festivals by various
minorities (there have already been festivals of Jewish, Georgian, Crimean Tatar and
other cultures); (c) the operation of schools in which a minority language is the lan-
2
"On National Minorities in Ukraine," Holos Ukrayiny, July 16, 1992.

3. guage of instruction. In 1994 the numbers were as follows: 2973 Russian schools
(2,945,924 students); 11 Moldovan (7087students); 97 Romanian (26,096 students);
60 Hungarian (19,629 students); 3 Polish (871 students); 1 Crimean Tatar (946
students); (d) the existence of television and radio programs (in Bulgarian, German,
Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, Jewish, Polish, Crimean Tatar, Armenian, and
Gagauz)3.
No laws and no state ethnic policy, however ideal, will solve the problems of
ethnic minorities if they do not mobilize their inherent resources. In this context it
should be mentioned that an ethnic minority will function as a coherent structural
element of a polyethnic society, especially in a project of self-renewal, only if the
size of that group is adequate and there also exists an adequate structure of
settlement, demographic situation, and desire to preserve ethnic distinctiveness, i.e.,
those features that are not always determined by official policy, which in foreign
ethnosociology have been termed "institutional completeness of the structure of an
ethnic minority."4
From this point of view practically all of Ukraine's ethnic minorities are now at the
stage where they are establishing their structures and deciding their content. This is a
result of objective circumstances: (a) the policies of the centralized Soviet state
whose main focus was the formation of a new community, a "single Soviet people";
(b) an ethnopolitical renaissance in Ukraine, characteristic of both the Ukrainian
ethnos and the ethnic minorities. (For the latter the renaissance itself served as the
stimulus for structuralization.) At present, different ethnic minorities find themselves
at different stages of their structuralization, a fact which, in my opinion, may help to
explain the force of a minority's ethnic field in its relations with other minorities.
Upon analysis of the indices of structuralization, it becomes apparent that the force of
the ethnic field is not always connected to a minority's size. When one takes into
account such an indicator as ethnic organization, the following picture emerges: the
ethnic Jewish minority has 38 organizations (according to the 1989 census there were
486,000 Jews in Ukraine), the Germans–33 organizations (population: 38,000),
3
The Ministry of Ukraine for Nationality Affairs, Migration and Religion, Information Bulletin, no. 1 (1995), 31-32.
4
R. Breton, "Institutional Completeness of Ethnic Communities and the Personal Relations of Immigrants," American
Journal of Sociology, vol. 70, no. 2 (1964).

4. Russians–24 (11.3 million), Greek–22 (98,000), Polish–22 (219,000), Armenian–13
(54,000), Bulgarian-8 (234,000), Azerbaijan–7 (37,000), other minorities (22) have
from one to six organizations. Admittedly, there are minorities that have an
insignificant number of organizations but which may be considered to be fairly
structured–in particular the Hungarian minority, which has six organizations
(population 163,000) and the Crimean Tatars, who have three (population of 240,000
in 1995).5 The fact is that these minorities live in dense settlements–in
Transcarpathia and Crimea–and a large number of community members are included
in the activities of a small number of ethnic organizations.
Thus, we see that only a small number of ethnic minorities in Ukraine avail
themselves of the opportunities for ethnocultural development being provided by the
ethnic policies of the Ukrainian state. It is worth mentioning that until now the
official policy has not considered all aspects of Ukraine's ethnonational development.
In my opinion, it ought to consider the fact that the ethnic renaissance typical of
members of Ukraine's various ethnic groups is characterized by two features: the
emergence of independent states in which the main part of the respective ethnos
resides. As it seeks to satisfy the needs which have arisen owing to this renaissance,
the Ukrainian state must coordinate its efforts in this sphere with the ethnic policies
of those states for which Ukraine's ethnic minorities constitute a diaspora. Above all,
there is a need to create conditions for a free exchange of persons and information
between ethnic groups and their ethnic homelands.
Through the optimal coordination of the efforts of the Ukrainian state in both the
internal and external aspects of minority politics, that is, by stimulating ethnocultural
development in Ukraine and opening new channels of contact with ethnic homelands,
it may be possible to overcome the fear of what Peter Zager, former vice president of
the Council of Europe, has called the "coercion for integration."6 In such conditions
integration into a Ukrainian context can take place without conflict and a policy
directed toward the creation of such conditions will attest to the high level of
democratic values in the state and its society.
5
The Ministry of Ukraine for Nationality Affairs, Migration and Religion, Information Bulletin, no. 1 (1995), 39-40.
6
Peter Zager, „Natsionalizm—novaia opasnost’. O prichinakh usileniia separatistskikh tendentsii v stranakh Evropy‖. –
Druzhba narodov, no. 7 (1992), 212. (Peter Zager, „Nationalizm – the new danger. About the reasons of the separatistic
tendencies’ strengthening in the countries of Europe‖. – Druzhba narodov, no. 7 (1992), 212).

5. Admittedly, at present one still cannot see the results of this integration. In my
opinion, this state of affairs can be explained by several causes: (a) during the course
of ethnic revival a certain isolation takes place, inasmuch as primary attention is
focused on internal problems; (b) a lack of clear state guidelines (i.e., ethnopolitical
measures) for the integration of an ethnic group into the main current (the
Ukrainians) which determines the nature of the state-building processes; (c) the
separatist tendencies among a certain segment of ethnic minorities. (By separatism I
have in mind not so much isolation as a broader sense–the differentiation from a mul-
tiethnic conglomerate with subsequent claims to exclusiveness.)
In this context it is worth remembering the fact that an ethnic renaissance can give
rise to or strengthen "ethnic nationalism," whose leaders quite often raise the issue of
creating autonomous territorial units and sometimes even advocate separation. Such
ideas are held by certain political powers in Crimea, Transcarpathia and in some
southern regions of Ukraine. For example, in Crimea such ideas were very sharply
voiced in the spring of 1995 when the central power in Kyiv was forced to resort to a
firm conceptual regulation of relations between Ukraine and Crimea. Presidential
decrees and resolutions by the Supreme Rada of Ukraine brought the course of events
in Crimea back into the legal framework of Ukraine.7 Ukraine took these steps in
accordance with international legal norms on the grounds of preserving the integrity
of Ukrainian state territory. The clear statement made by official Kyiv concerning
their position on the separatist sentiments of the leaders of the present-day Rusyn
movement in Transcarpathia (sentiments that were made particularly clear in the
summer of 1995 during the events marking the fiftieth anniversary of the transfer of
Transcarpathian Ukraine to Soviet Ukraine) will also certainly contribute to the con-
solidation of integrationist processes in Ukrainian society. If the Ukrainian state
maintains a balanced ethnic policy, this may deter groundless claims to
exclusiveness, because in Ukraine there are no relatively large communities living in
a compact settlement within a single region. Incidentally, specialists who study ethnic
communities and ways to satisfy their problems have recently drawn attention to the
7
In particular, "Zakon pro Avtonomnu Respubliku Krym," and "Zakon pro skasuvannia Konstytutsiyi i deiakykh
zakoniv Avtonomnoyi Respubliky Krym," etc. (In particular, ―The Law on the Autonomous Republic of Crimea‖ and
―The Law on cancelling the Constitution and some laws of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea‖, etc.)

6. principle of national-personal autonomy as the most productive means of satisfying
the needs of citizens of non-Ukrainian origin, especially those needs that are
determined by their origin. The search for opportunities for an effective ethnocultural
development beyond the territorial principle (which at one time was considered
virtually the only means) is, for example, characteristic of such a distinguished
authority as Georg Brunner.8
From this point of view, the idea of a federal structure for Ukraine is unlikely to be
very productive. It is precisely here that one must not allow the desire to win
conditions for a comprehensive ethnocultural development to be identified with the
launching of a political campaign aimed at separatism. The actions of Austria, which
very closely monitors the implementation of the rights of ethnic minorities, show that
the state organs of that country do everything possible to prevent the transformation
of ethnocultural demands into territorial claims. At the same time, much is being
done in Austria to satisfy the needs of ethnic groups, thereby precluding the need to
raise the question of territorial autonomy.9 The multiethnic character of all regions of
Ukraine provides grounds for choosing between the two ways possible of satisfying
the needs of ethnic groups–according to territorial or personal principles: for Ukraine,
national-personal (or better, ethno-personal) autonomy and not territorial autonomy is
preferable.
Center for Ethnosociological and Ethnopolitical Studies,
Kyiv
Translated by Mary Ann Szporluk
8
Georg Brunner, Nationalitätenprobleme und Minderheitenkonflikte in Osteuropa (Gütersloh, 1993), 75-108.
9
See Grundlagenbericht der Bundesregierung über die Lage der Volksgruppen in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1991).