LINGUISTIC DIMENTION OF NATIONAL SECURITY OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The article deals with the interrelation of the linguistic situation in Ukraine and the problems of its national security.
On the one hand, on the basis of experience of the states that were undergoing a long assimilative policy from their
former colonizers, and on the other hand, those that legally established several offi cial languages, some stereotypes of
Ukrainian society about possible ways of resolving the linguistic situation in Ukraine are described and analyzed. In
particular the question is whether offi cial bilingualism or multilingualism can become a way of achieving a language
balance in Ukraine or the current situation only will get worse.
Language situations in Ukraine and Belgium and Canada (countries to which domestic proponents of the idea of
two offi cial languages appeal most often) are compared and the ways of linguistic defending of national self-identity by
the states which are recently independent are examined. It is emphasized that the lack of thought-out language policy
by the Ukrainian government and the tendency to silence the problem which continues to threaten the integrity of the
society and the security of the state leaves Ukraine within the cultural and informational fi eld of Russian interests, and
therefore the linguistic Ukrainian-Russian confl ict is threatening to gain momentum.