History and present of the Russian language in Ukraine: An overview

The Russian language gradually spread to Ukraine since the second half of the 17th century. As a consequence of political history and Russian immigration, the Russian language has become an important component of the linguistic landscape of Ukraine, where it is still widely used, in spite of current efforts to strengthen the state language. Among the most widely discussed results of Russian-Ukrainian language contacts are mixed varieties (“Suržyk”). Another issue of current interest is the question whether Ukraine should strive to create a Ukrainian standard of Russian.

The article is written in German.