Kyiv Post: Lviv lawmaker touches off latest Ukraine-Russia row over whether Michael should be called Misha or Mykhailyk

Playing nationalism with five-year-olds, now that's something. Frankly this whole story is so disgusting I hesitated at first about making it an entry here. But since I have a heavy load of work ahead of me this weekend, I decided to post this. To say the truth, I wrote my translation of Novodvorskaya's rant after class, in University computer room. :-)

Here’s a recipe for overnight international fame if you happen to be an obscure local politician: Come to a kindergarten class unannounced, and tell a group of 5-year-old kids that their names are all wrong because they sound too Russian, then try to teach them how to say them in Ukrainian. Tell those who disagree to pack their suitcases and go to Moscow.

Hmmm...this is what occurred in the classroom...

With cameras rolling – her appearance was shown on regional television – Farion pulled out a small chart that listed the right and wrong ways for ethnic Ukrainians to say their names. With the Svoboda-sponsored graphic in hand, the lawmaker walked around the classroom, asking children their names.

“Olenka,” responded one girl.

“Pretty girl! What is your name?” Farion inquired, turning to another child.

“Misha,” the boy answered.

“About Misha, we will still talk! And really, children, Misha – who is this? Really Misha is Mykhailyk (the traditional Ukrainian diminutive). And if Misha lived in England, then he would be Michael, right? And if Misha lived in France, then he would be Michel. But if he is in Ukraine, then certainly he is to be Mykhailyk. Which do you like more?” Farion asked.

The children yelled in unison “Misha!”

“Catastrophe!” Farion responded.

Well, I thing this is enough of a snapshot, read the rest here. In Czech we have both the diminutive Misha and Michálek, the latter of which is only used by close relatives of the person or people otherwise close to him (especially women in relationship with Michaels). I wonder what they demand of the Czech minority in Volhynia? It is somewhat similar to how Ukrainians demand Russians to use 'v Ukraine' instead of 'na Ukraine'. The Czechs would never use 'v Ukrajině', simply because it sounds unnatural, but then nobody demands them to do so. Why?

Hat tip goes out to Michael Averko.

Comments

[Misha]

Thanks for posting Leos.

Carl Thomson brought that Kyiv Post piece to my attention.

Here's a link which leads to some of Carl's erudite commentary on former Communist bloc issues:

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/carl_thomson/

Regarding the Kyiv Post article, I never thought of changing my surname back to an "ov" ending in place of the "ko."

In a seemingly similar spirit, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church near me uses "St. Vladimir's" as opposed to the modern day Ukrainian language transliteration preferred "St. Volodymyr's".

[Leoš Tomíček]

Have you been to a service in the Church. My guess is that the congregation is heavily integrated into North American society to which Vladimir is more intelligible than Volofymyr.