MINORITATEA MOLDO-ROMÂNĂ DIN UCRAINA: PROBLEME ACTUALE ŞI PERSPECTIVE DE SUPRAVIEŢUIRE

Abstract

In the Soviet period the Romanian minority in Ukraine was submitted to a Russification process, in order to achieve the so-called Soviet People, speaking of the Russian language. Now there is a process of Ukrainization in order to achieve a Ukrainian nation, including the ethnic minorities. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Romania and Republic of Moldova (RM) have the duty to establish agreements and cooperation with Ukraine regarding the preservation of the ethnic identity of the Romanian minority. In this regard there are a few topical problems: to open schools with the Romanian language of teaching in the Romanian villages with no such schools; the Ministries of Education from Romania and RM have to provide teaching materials, if the Ukrainian authorities cannot do this for their citizens – tax payers; to provide books by classic writers, dictionaries, literature for children for the Romanian schools (Romania could support “Alexandu cel Bun” Publishing house from Cernăuţi to publish the texts of the classic writers; changes of experience between Romanian teachers from Ukraine and from Romania and RM; the problem of the recognition of diplomas obtained by the Ukrainian citizens in Romania and RM (the graduates have to pay about 1000 $ and must take certain exams among which is one of the most difficult, namely the Ukrainian language). It is important to create common governmental Ukrainian-Romanian-Moldovan commissions on the fields of education, culture and so on, to solve all problems of the Romanian minority; to create the opportunities to make subscriptions to the cultural Romanian and Moldovan newspapers, to organize the festivals of movies produced in Romania and RM, to show theatre performances (even to create a Romanian theatre in Cernăuţi); a branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Cernăuţi is a matter of urgency; to enhance the cooperation within the Upper Prut Euro region and Lower Danube Euro region, between the RM, Ukraine and Romania; to create an University with Romanian as the language of teaching in Cernăuţi or in Herţa; to open all the possibilities for the Romanian minority to travel in Romania, as it can travel in Moldova, without visas (in this regard, the authorities from Bucharest and from Kiev must achieve the same agreements as the Polish Government achieved with the Ukrainian Government); the example of the Swedish minority from Finland would be useful to follow: as it is known, the Swedish language has the status of state language in Finland. Perhaps, it would be useful to introduce the Romanian language as the official language in the Romanian villages from the Cernăuţi and Odesa regions. The perspectives of the Romanian minority survival depend on the implementing these proposals.