「私の弾丸は言葉」 ロシア語話者への無料ウクライナ語講座

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナ人の学者で詩人のナザール・ダンチシンさん（３０）は、オンラインでウクライナ語を教えている。（写真はダンチシンさん）
　ウクライナでは相当数の少数派が、ロシア語を母語としている。特に東部と南部ではロシア文化の影響を受けて育ち、流ちょうなロシア語を話す人が多い。
　だが近年、ロシア政治に対する拒否を示すために、言語上のアイデンティティーを切り替える人が増えている。ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領がウクライナの「非ナチ化」を唱え、ロシア語話者の保護を口実に２月末、ウクライナ侵攻を開始して以降、この傾向はいっそう強まっている。
　ウクライナ語話者が圧倒的に多い西部の都市リビウでは、ウクライナ語の会話能力を磨きたいという人々を対象に、知識人グループが無料のオンライン授業を実施している。
　主催者によると、わずか３日間で１０００人の申し込みがあったが、これまでのところ生徒約８００人分の講師しか確保できていない。
　ダンチシンさんは「よく聞くのは、祖父母や曽祖父母はウクライナ語を話していたが、（ソ連の下で）両親の世代にロシア語に切り替えたという話だ」と言い、「母語に戻したいという人がたくさんいます」と続けた。
　「将来、私たちみんながウクライナ語を話すようになれば、侵略に対する非常に強力な武器になる」
　生徒の一人、研究者のウォロディミル・クラスノポルスキーさん（５２）は、東部の都市ルガンスクの出身でロシア語話者だ。
　「ウクライナ語を学ぶことは私にとってとても大切です。自分の家族はロシア語話者のウクライナ人ですが、ウクライナ語を話せれば、侵略者に守ってもらう必要はない、私には自分の国があるのだからということを示せます」
　「ウクライナという国は今、形成されつつあるのだと思います。個々人の出自に関係なく」とクラスノポルスキーさんは語った。

■「ここが私の最前線」

　ウクライナ語講座の内容は、国立リビウ工科大学の語学テキストからヒントを得ている。同大の講堂で取材に応じた元国会議員で、熱心なウクライナ語推進者のイリーナ・ファリオン氏は、オンライン授業を始めたことについて「ウクライナ人がウクライナ人である権利を求める不断の闘い」の一部だと語る。
　ファリオン氏は涙を浮かべながら、ロシア軍に占領された南東部メリトポリ市で先月、ロシア当局が学校の授業をロシア語で行うよう強要しようとしたという報道について語った。
　「自分たちの言葉を守らなければ、プーチンはまさにこの建物の中にまでやって来るでしょう」とファリオン氏。「ここが私の最前線です。私の弾丸は言葉なのです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/25-13:15）

Ukrainian academic Nazar Danchyshyn may not have much fighting experience, but to help his country since the start of the war he has deployed his knowledge of language and poetry.
Twice a week, he flips open his laptop for online classes to help fellow countrymen in the former Soviet nation perfect their Ukrainian speaking skills.
If we all speak Ukrainian in the future that would be a very powerful weapon against aggression, the 30-year-old researcher and poet said.
A sizeable minority of Ukrainians speak Russian as their mother tongue, and many more are fluent, brought up under Moscow's cultural influence, especially in the east and south of the country.
But in recent years, increasingly more people have decided to shift linguistic identity in rejection of Russia's politics.
Since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in late February, under the pretext of de-nazifying its neighbour and protecting Russian speakers there, the trend has soared.
In the western city of Lviv, where the national language is predominant, a group of academics offers free lessons online to those wishing to brush up on their Ukrainian speaking skills.
Organisers say 1,000 people signed up in just three days, and they have so far only managed to find enough tutors for around 800.
Danchyshyn, who was also a guitar player in a band before the war, is one of those teachers.
People remember that their grandparents and great-grandparents spoke Ukrainian, and then their families switched to Russian under the Soviet Union, he said.
Many wanted to return to their native language.
- 'I have my own country' -
The war in Ukraine has killed thousands and displaced millions at home and abroad over the past seven weeks.
With mounting evidence of likely Russian war crimes, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Moscow of genocide.
It's become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian, the president said.
The conversation classes Danchyshyn gives are online, but organisers say the content is roughly inspired by language textbooks from the Lviv Polytechnic National University.
In their pages appear images of Ukraine's national hero, 19th-century poet Taras Shevchenko, or modern role models such as Oksana Lyniv, a music conductor from Lviv.
Volodymyr Krasnopolsky, a 52-year-old Russian-speaking academic from the eastern city of Lugansk, is one of Danchyshyn's students.
After pro-Moscow separatists seized control of Lugansk in 2014, he moved to the small eastern city of Rubizhne.
But the city was hit by a missile on February 24, and he and his daughter -- a medic student -- spent two weeks sheltering in a basement before they managed to flee westwards.
There were people of different origins in the bomb shelter with us, but they all felt like Ukrainians, he told AFP via text message.
Learning Ukrainian is very important to me because I'm showing the aggressor that I'm a Russian-speaking Ukrainian from a Russian-speaking family, but I don't need his protection. I have my own country, he added.
I believe that the Ukrainian nation is being formed today, regardless of people's origin, he said.
- 'My bullets are words' -
Yuliya, a school principal and maths teacher, said she had joined the course after the conflict forced her to escape bombardment on Ukraine's second city Kharkiv near the Russian border.
I plan to return home as soon as possible, said the 51-year-old, who teaches in Ukrainian but speaks Russian in her daily life.
But now is a good time for self-development.
I'm fluent in reading and writing in Ukrainian, but I struggle with speaking, she explained, without giving her surname.
Under the grand ceiling of the Lviv polytechnic, passionate Ukrainian language advocate and one-time lawmaker Iryna Farion said initiating the free classes was part of the constant struggle of Ukrainians for the right to be Ukrainian.
Her eyes welled up as she recounted reports that Russians in the southern town of Melitopol had tried last month to force officials to switch the school curriculum to Russian.
If we do not defend our language, Putin will come here, right into this very building, she said.
As well as the online classes, she said she was planning to give Ukrainian lessons to the parents of displaced children enrolled at a local school to help them follow their homework.
This is my frontline. My bullets are words, she said.