Ukrainophobia

Anti-Ukrainian sentiment, Ukrainophobia or anti-Ukrainianism is animosity towards Ukrainians, Ukrainian culture, the Ukrainian language, Ukraine as a nation, or all of the above.Andriy Okara. Ukrainophobia is a gnostic problem.
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. Retrieved 7 December 2008.

Modern scholars divide anti-Ukrainian sentiment into two types. One type consists of discrimination against Ukrainians based on their ethnic or cultural origin, typical forms of xenophobia and racism. Another type consists of the conceptual rejection of Ukrainians as an actual ethnic group and the rejection of the Ukrainian culture and language, based on the belief that they are "unnatural" because they were "artificially formed"; at the turn of the 20th century, several Russian nationalist authors asserted that the Ukrainian identity and language had both been artificially created in order to "undermine" Russia. Since then, this argument has also been made by other Russian nationalist authors.

Ukrainophobic stereotypes

Within Russian nationalist narratives and propaganda, Ukrainophobic stereotypes range from mockery to ascribing negative traits to the whole Ukrainian nation and people of Ukrainian descent include:
*Ukrainians eat lots of salo.
*Ukrainians are greedy.
*Ukrainians are sly and cunning.
*Ukrainians are dishonest.
*Ukrainians are antisemites.
*Ukrainian language is a broken dialect of Russian.
*Ukrainian nationalism is closely associated with neo-Nazism. This is a recurring theme in Russian propaganda following the onset of Russo-Ukrainian War, usually in the following narratives:
**Ukrainians are sympathizers of nationalist leader Stepan Bandera ( ''Banderovtsy''), who collaborated with Nazi Germany in World War II. Despite the stereotype, 4.5 million Ukrainians served the Red Army during World War II. Ukrainians were also considered ''Untermenschen'' by the Nazis for being Slavic and treated accordingly.
**Ukrainians are sympathizers of nationalist leader Ivan Mazepa, who wish to betray the Khmelnytskyi's cause.
**Ukrainians are followers of nationalist leader Symon Petliura, who artificially wish to secede from the Triune All-Russian Nation.
**The whole Ukrainian society is claimed to be dominated by neo-Nazis and ultranationalists who persecuted ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians. This stereotype was used by the Russian government to justify the ongoing 2022 invasion as a special military operation for the aim of "demilitarisation" and "denazification" of Ukraine.

History

In the Russian Empire

The rise and spread of Ukrainian self-awareness around the time of the Revolutions of 1848 produced an anti-Ukrainian sentiment within some layers of society within the Russian Empire. In order to retard and control this movement, the use of Ukrainian language within the Russian empire was initially restricted by official government decrees such as the Valuev Circular (18 July 1863) and later banned by the Ems ukaz (18 May 1876) from any use in print (with the exception of reprinting of old documents). Popularly the anti-Ukrainian sentiment was promulgated by such organizations as the " Black Hundreds", which were vehemently opposed to Ukrainian self-determination. Some restrictions on the use of Ukrainian language were relaxed in 1905–1907. They ceased to be policed after the February Revolution in 1917.

Besides the Ems ukaz and Valuev Circular, there were multiple of other anti-Ukrainian edicts starting from the 17th century, when Russia was governed by the House of Romanov. In 1720 Peter the Great issued an edict prohibiting printing books in the Ukrainian language, and since 1729 all edicts and instructions have only been in the Russian language. In 1763 Catherine the Great issued an edict prohibiting lectures in the Ukrainian language at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 1769 the Most Holy Synod prohibited printing and using the Ukrainian alphabet book. In 1775 the Zaporizhian Sich was destroyed. In 1832 all studying at schools of the Right-bank Ukraine transitioned to exclusively Russian language. In 1847 the Russian government persecuted all members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius and prohibited the works of Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Nikolay Kostomarov (Mykola Kostomarov) and others. In 1862 all free Sunday schools for adults in Ukraine were closed. In 1863 the Russian Minister of Interior Valuev decided that the Little Russian language (Ukrainian language) had never existed and could not ever exist. During that time in the winter of 1863–64, the January Uprising took place at the western regions of the Russian Empire, uniting peoples of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Next year in 1864 the "Regulation about elementary school" claimed that all teaching should be conducted in the Russian language. In 1879 the Russian Minister of Education Dmitry Tolstoy (later the Russian Minister of Interior) officially and openly stated that all people of the Russian Empire should be Russified. In the 1880s several edicts were issued prohibiting education in the Ukrainian language at private schools, theatric performances in Ukrainian, any use of Ukrainian in official institutions, and christening Ukrainian names. In 1892 another edict prohibited translation from the Russian to Ukrainian. In 1895 the Main Administration of Publishing prohibited printing children books in Ukrainian. In 1911 the resolution adopted at the 7th Congress of Noblemen in Moscow prohibited the use of any languages other than Russian. In 1914 the Russian government officially prohibited celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of Shevchenko's birthday and posted gendarmes at the Chernecha Hill. The same year Nicholas II of Russia issued an edict prohibiting the Ukrainian press.

Soviet Union

Under Soviet rule in Ukraine, a policy of korenization was adopted after defeat of the Ukrainian People's Republic and initially supported Ukrainian cultural self-awareness. This policy was phased out in 1928 and terminated entirely in 1932 in favor of general Russification.

In 1929 Mykola Kulish wrote a theatrical play "Myna Mazailo" where the author cleverly displays the cultural situation in Ukraine. There was supposedly no anti-Ukrainian sentiment within the Soviet government, which began to repress all aspects of Ukrainian culture and language contrary to the ideology of Proletarian Internationalism.

In 1930 the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine process took place in Kharkiv