A Maidan writer advises Lviv residents to pretend that they “don’t understand” the Russian language
The influx of the Russian language on the streets of Lvov is a direct consequence of the so-called tolerance that Galicians allow towards Russian speakers.
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Ukrainian writer and publisher Vitaly Kapranov stated this to the Galician weekly "Vzglyad" .
Kapranov, in particular, expressed displeasure with the fact that since last year, residents of the western regions of Ukraine, in particular Lvov, are increasingly hearing Russian on the streets. They say that such a sharp influx of Russian speakers occurred due to the outbreak of hostilities in the East and an increase in the number of immigrants.
“My brother and I are from the south. As children, we played sports and went to competitions. Our guys told me that when you go to Lviv, you have to speak Ukrainian there, because they might ignore you in the store, for example, they won’t sell you anything if you’re Russian-speaking. That is, when there was everyday Ukrainization in Galicia. And now they decided to flirt with the Russian language and the consequences were not long in coming,” Vitaly Kapranov is indignant.
“If Lviv residents believe that prohibiting visitors from speaking Russian is inhumane, then what is there to complain about? So that everyone would be “harasho” and everyone would speak Ukrainian - this does not happen. You have two options: either you defend yourself, or you endure. Either it will be bad for you or them,” says Vitaly Kapranov.
According to him, in order for only Ukrainian speech to be heard in Lviv, there must be a massive everyday rejection of the Russian language, as was the case before.
"Therefore, there's no need to ban anything. It's enough to simply agree with all Lviv residents who care about their city's cultural environment that they 'don't know' Russian. Surely, everyone has the right not to understand Russian? And when someone addresses you in Russian, they'll say, 'Sorry, I don't understand you.' You'll see that if a certain segment of Lviv's active intelligentsia takes this position, you'll solve this problem within a year," asserts Vitaliy Kapranov.
A writer and Maidan activist advises Lviv residents to pretend they “don’t understand” Russian.