Ukrainophobia

Anti-Ukrainian sentiment or Ukrainophobia is animosity towards Ukrainians, Ukrainian culture, language or Ukraine as a nation.

In modern times, significant presence of Ukrainophobia may be distinguished in three geographical areas, where it differs by its roots and manifestation:

Historically, Ukrainian culture was oppressed in states which included the Ukrainian population: Russian Empire, Soviet Union and historical Polish states.

Modern scholars define two types of anti-Ukrainian sentiment. One is based on discrimination of Ukrainians based on their ethnic or cultural origin, a typical kind of xenophobia and racism. Another one is based on the conceptual rejection of Ukrainians, Ukrainian culture, and language as artificial and unnatural; at the turn of the 20th century, several authors supported an assertion that Ukrainian identity and language had been created artificially in order to undermine Russia. This argument has been promulgated by several conservative Russian authors.

Ukrainophobic stereotypes range from mockery to ascribing negative traits to the whole Ukrainian nation.

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 (July 18, 1863) and later banned by the Ems ukaz (May 18, 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 "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.

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