The Influence of Language on Transforming Ukraine’s Image in 20th — early 21st Century

The importance of language in the process of structuring, development, and modification of the image of Ukraine in the 20th — early 21st centuries is thoroughly covered in the article. And it is shown that its originality is determined by the outlook-value orientations and cultural resources, which are positioned as external signs of the mental identity of the community within a certain historical period. The key role in the process of constructing the image of Ukraine in all historical periods was played by the Ukrainian language, which, as a result of the permanent Russification of the Ukrainians in the 20th century. Turned to be seen as a sign of provincialism, as a result of which it could not compete freely with Russian, fully presenting the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people. The unchallenged domination of the image of Ukraine of the populist orientation in the 20th century led to the development of a complex of Ukrainian inferiority, which was manifested in the depreciation of Ukrainian cultural achievements, because of the prejudices prevailing in the public consciousness about the Ukrainians’ provincialism, and hence the inferiority, compared with the achievements produced by the “advanced” Soviet culture with a distinct Russian coloring. There is every reason to consider the historically shaped complex of the inferiority of Ukrainians as one of the main obstacles towards the development of the Ukrainian homogeneous cultural environment, which would contribute to overcoming the orientation of part of Ukrainians to the imperial cultural centers, external to the state while laying the bases for rethinking the foundations of the populist image of Ukraine in line with the socio-cultural demands of the Ukrainian population and the geopolitical orientation of Ukraine