Many things surprised me about Ukraine. Some minor, some major. I will definitely cover as many more of these as I can, but, with a suggestion from my wife actually, this one will be a rather complex one. The term I heard a lot of: “Nashy”
Nash, наши, наша, наш, (depending on the sentence) literally means ‘ours’ in both Ukrainian and Russian. ‘Krim Nash’ you may well have heard to mean Crimea is ours. However, it often is, or at least was used by many in the ‘post-soviet’ world to refer to either former Soviet countries, or russian speakers, or something which is not easy to pin down. I wonder if there is a racial component to excluding non-white russian speakers. I’ve heard some people say it’s any russian speaker, but I wonder how far it extends.
Let me give you some examples. I heard a lot since I came to Ukraine statements like “In our countries, most of us live in flats that look the same, so we relate to the film Irony of Fate”. To briefly explain this, it’s a very famous Soviet New Year film where the plot revolves around a guy accidentally ending up in Leningrad and finds a street with the same name as his, a building like his, and his key fits for his flat, but it’s not his home. It was a commentary on Soviet sameness of course. You can watch it for free on YouTube if you want, but it’s long, and even for soviet films, there are better. But here, you can understand the statement ‘ours’ can relate. I get it, it makes sense. There’s a shared experience of houses and cities that look alike.
But there was for me a sort of weirdness, to hear from Ukrainians, who were not exactly fans of russia, refer to them still as one and the same. To use the term ‘ours’. Certainly, many people in these countries did enjoy many of the same films, books, cultural references, and music. However, it’s always in the russian language right? There is an underlying aspect of nash meaning russian speaking, and this I felt played right into russian propaganda about ‘we are all brothers’ or ‘we are all the same’. Yet as soon as Ukrainians want to do their own thing they’re ‘khohols/banderites’ whatever. I suppose it’s similar to British people emphasisng we’re all British but as soon as a Scottish or Welsh person expresses criticism they’re all of a sudden stupid Celts. It’s almost a great fit.
Anyway, it went further than this. If you have Telegram or Facebook, or the russian ‘VK’ social media, type in various countries (in russian OF COURSE) and find ‘Nashy in Thailand”. It’s full of russian speakers finding advice to help each other. I found this interesting as there was a sense that ‘we russian speakers share a culture and preferences, priorities, and want things in our language’ (rather than English). Now, obviously, other language groups may do this i.e Francophones or Spanish speakers. But, I feel in the ‘nashy’ one, the fact it’s referred to as ‘ours’ over say ‘russian speakers’ or something, indicates a political element.
English-speaking foreigner groups abroad are usually mixed with non-English as first or second-language speakers, though everything is in English. Yet we don’t quite cling together on the same linguistic level or call ourselves something as controversial as ‘ours’. I suppose because English is the dominant language globally we perhaps have this luxury. Many russian speakers don’t want or simply cannot adapt to that. Ukrainians now started avoiding these groups, setting up Ukrainians abroad groups, I hope that with time they’ll feel more comfortable with Western English language groups, than relying on russian language groups or feeling this is the world they belong in.
But all this was a strange concept to me. I think it will take time for Ukrainians to break out of this shell of a sense of ‘nash’, that they are part of that world. While I have no issue with Ukrainians speaking russian, nor would it be appropriate for me as a foreigner to lecture people on their language. I do think actually using the language to communicate even to convince russians of what is going on, or more effectively, to communicate with other victims of russian imperialism is valuable. It could potentially be an interesting idea to claim the language away from ‘Muskovy Russian’ (similar to how Taiwan has Traditional Mandarin over mainland Simplified) although this all needs to be a conversation for Ukrainians to have, rather than myself. My concern is that Ukrainians saw themselves as part of a world that actually relegated them to a subservient role to the “oh so enlightened ‘proper’ russians”. The concept of Nash didnt unify, it reinforced a sense of us vs them, and a divide between West and East.
There’s not much more to say, but I think it reflects a sense within the Ukrainian world of where they were and where they are going. This isn’t new either, throughout history, there were times of a sense of affinity between Kyiv and Muscovy because of a shared Orthodox faith (though it always tended to benefit russia once that was the dominant power, however, this is another topic for another day). Obviously within the USSR, they were all Soviets too.
This discussion demonstrates the contradictory nature of identity. That people can feel very strongly about their identity, yet still change. Ukrainians who were firmly against Russia would still perceive themselves as part of a ‘post-soviet’ world of ‘nash’. This changed overnight for many when the rockets were falling on them. Once again showing how russia consistently diminishes its power every time it tries to exert it. I think back to how I had an English friend in Moscow who visited Kyiv on the train, exchanged her roubles, and was all fine, about two years ago. The Ukrainians I know here tell me how they would take a train to Minsk or Moscow with ease. Especially when travelling to the EU was very difficult. This world has, essentially, gone but in the space of a few short years. Ukrainians won’t look to the east anymore, and this is no one’s fault but russia.
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