r/AskUkraine

I doubt it's Duolingo these days. They succumbed to r/Enshittification.

So what are some great language learning apps that I can learn Ukrainian on that will be better than what Duolingo is today? And how are they better than duolingo? Foreigners learning Ukrainian: what are your experiences learning Ukrainian on those language learning apps?

Всім привіт - hope you’re all doing okay. I’m after a bit of advice, while I can’t give the details, I’ve been offered the opportunity to speak to a military unit (via webcam) to share a bit about myself and how I’ve been supporting Ukraine over the past 4 years. I’m honoured to be asked but I don’t want to say something inappropriate or insensitive. Are there topics that I should steer clear of? I know dark humour is essential, would it be welcomed from an ‘outsider’ or should I keep things formal and to the point? The last thing I’d want to do is offend, I want to show support in a sincere way without downplaying the importance and seriousness. Might be overthinking it, hope that all makes sense. Any advice is welcome and appreciated. Слава Україні 🫡🇺🇦

Hey guys, I'm an American citizen (29F) who supports Ukraine, and I feel extremely nervous asking this question in front of this crowd but here we go.

I was born and raised in Russia and moved out to the US when I was 17 years old. Since then, I've never lived, studied, or worked in Russia, and the last time I visited my remaining family there was before 2022. I don't plan to travel to Russia at all in the future unless the political situation there changes for the better and the war ends.

I also briefly lived in Ukraine as a child and always really enjoyed the country, its hospitality, culture, and always wanted to go back eventually and explore the historical cities such as Lviv and generally the western part of the country.

When the war started, I told myself I'd been an idiot for not doing it sooner and that I would visit as soon as it was over to support the Ukrainian economy and tourism and fulfill that old wish of mine.

Do you all think it would be exceptionally unwise of me to visit the country with my US passport? I'm under no illusion that I'd be able to hide my Russian citizenship of course. I don't have an active Russian passport, but I was told by the Ukrainians that I know that I would still likely be detained for an interview with SBU, and potentially denied entry (their right to do it, of course).

What do y'all think would realistically happen if I went? I mean on the border. In the country I assume it would be fine if I only spoke English and my limited Ukrainian.

I’m in Ukraine and Ukrainian, but why is our education so bad, I’m having a hard time reading the school books, it feels like they’ve been written by the worst AI ever known to mankind

I was there before the war mostly and it seemed 70-80% of people spoke Russian including young people. But, I'm curious what the situation is now. I can understand older people probably Russian is still somewhat prevelant, but curious about 18-30 year olds do some still speak Russian between friends or is that language pretty much dead among that age group, telegram convos, friends, dating, uni friends. Truly curious. Also do people still watch Russian language content what is the language situation for young people is it mostly Ukrainian or fully Ukrainian.

I was there before the war mostly and it seemed 70-80% of people spoke Russian including young people. But, I'm curious what the situation is now. I can understand older people probably Russian is still somewhat prevelant, but curious about 18-30 year olds do some still speak Russian between friends or is that language pretty much dead among that age group, telegram convos, friends, dating, uni friends. Truly curious. Also do people still watch Russian language content what is the language situation for young people is it mostly Ukrainian or fully Ukrainian.

I am wondering the popularity of stepan Bandera in lviv,how popular is he?.I know there is the one statue but how often for example you can see the Red black flag or bandera portraits?.

Me and my father have been planing a trip sometime in this summer, and while thinking about potentional destinations, Ukraine (specifically Lviv and Kyiv) came to mind. The thing is, we are not sure if we would be just in the way of public security and if it is even ethical to visit a country at war. So I made this post, hoping to get some answers from actual Ukrainians, to know what you think about foreign tourists traveling to Ukraine right now, if it would be a good idea and whether we'll be able to even see something or if the interesting sights, landmarks and monuments are all closed. I don't know if it's important, but we are from Czechia so if we went to Ukraine, we would probably travel by train.

What are the prerequisites to operate a battlefield drone?

Can I do it from an office cubicle in the safety of Lviv while the drone I control drops grenades and bombs over Crimea?

Or do I need to be within 25 kilometers of the front lines?

What are the benefits?

What's the starting pay?

Could I get a fast track to citizenship for contributing to the war effort?

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If I would need military experience / training to operate battlefield drones, which I can't get due to age and mental health diagnoses, how about working on a drone factory assembly line instead?

What are the prerequisites for drone factory work?

How are your drone factories kept safe from missile and drone attacks?

What is the starting pay for drone assembly line workers?

What are the benefits for them?

Could drone factory work also fast-track me towards Ukrainian citizenship?

How many foreigners are already working at your drone factories, and how easy will it be for me to become another one of their/your employees?

Okay, this...is gonna be a bit of a dark one, am sorry.

I need advice on ukrainian goverment helplines.

I have a friend that lives in Ukraine, known that friend for 2 years.

Unfortunately, his well being....isn't good. And prone to s*lf-h*r, and they told me they just tried a s**ci*e attempt ( sorry, don't wanna get flagged), again. I calmed then down, but it will happen again.

This isn't war related, just deep depression, mental issues and a VERY bad life.

I'm trying to see if i can con contact people in ukraine to monitor , make sure it dosen't happen.

I...i just don't know how, i live overseas and don't speak a word of ukrainian.

I tried the lifeline, but the page says they been discontinued for a lack of funding, yay me.

Contact the 112? The phone number dosen't work overseas, and i don't have a mobile anyway. Plus, if the police barge in like that , there a chance my friend will deny everything and block me forever and I'll never be able to help again.

I'd like advice. If i could contact any sort of authorities, they could seek my friend family members and they could so something, a watch, medication, hospital, idk.

Again, sorry about the downer, i get this isn't a great post, but i tried everything and i'd like advice.

I am wondering what do the ukrainians think of the decommunization laws that banned communis,the communist Party kpy ,demolished until 2017 all Lein statues and Prohibition the 9 may.Are they really for or against the laws?.And what does happen if you waive for example an soviet flag in ukraine?.I am against the decommunization laws and think they will abolish in future.

I sorta have one, it’s fairly simple. It has beets(canned beets until I can harvest mine from the garden), potatoes, chicken broth, bacon grease, thyme, and rosemary. I personally like it, I’m always looking to improve my recipe. Actually have a pot of it on the stove right now.

Edit: Grammar fix

In theory if Russia continues to lose more people than it can recruit, and will be forced to get on the defensive, and offers a ceasefire without additional demands, would you support accepting it? Or would you rather support continuing the war until more territory is liberated, even if it would take more time and casualties?

I'm interested in any answers, but especially of those who currently serve in the military, or have insight on people's attitude on this who are currently serving.

Thank you!

(Very long post, sorry, but I've been thinking about this for a while.)

Anne Applebaum describes him as "a Ukrainian who wrote in Russian." Paul Robert Magocsi is more exacting, and describes him as "a Ukrainian who published only in Russian" (italic emphasis mine).

Magocsi also points out/clarifies that he is "perhaps too simplistically described in the literature as russified and therefore of little or no interest to the evolution of the Ukrainian national revival," and instead categorizes Gogol as a Little Russian representing one "of multiple loyalties present in many national revivals, including the Ukrainian."

Olga Andriewsky, meanwhile, lists him as one of many "Ukrainians who sought their fame and fortune in the Russian capitals and made their careers by serving as cultural mediators between Ukraine and educated Russian society. [...] Implicitly if not explicitly, their work tended to minimize or aestheticize differences between Russia and Ukraine and thus to discount the inherent autonomy or 'otherness' of the Ukrainian historical and cultural experience."

She states that "it was the ability of these Ukrainian writers to interpret and order—and ultimately tame the Ukrainian experience so as to make it accessible to a Russian audience that became a key to their literary success."

On the one hand, Gogol wrote in Russian (and so his works are translated from Russian), spent a lot of time in the Russian Empire (St. Petersburg), and died in the Russian Empire (Moscow). He undeniably contributed to Russian literature and culture.

On the other hand, he was born in the former Hetmanate/modern Ukraine, into a Ukrainian (and Polish) family. I'm pretty sure he had Cossack heritage. Also (per my understanding, which might be wrong—research aside, I've only read Dead Souls), at least some of his works were based in Ukraine (to him, the lands currently inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians, maybe the former Hetmanate, maybe even Kievan/Kyivan Rus'; to us, all of those, but also modern-day Ukraine). At least some of them definitely incorporated the "Ukrainian experience." Essentially, the nuances of a people who were not Russian.

If Gogol, someone with Ukrainian heritage, born and raised in that milieu, wrote about Ukrainian life using that very background, then wouldn't he be a Ukrainian literary figure? Even if he wrote in Russian? Even if his politics were those of a Little Russian, rather than, say, a Ukrainophile/Ukrainian populist (I'm using those terms in the context of 19th-century politics)?

Taras Shevchenko didn't seem to think so: "They give us the example of Gogol, who wrote not in his own language but in Russian, or Walter Scott, who did not write in his own language." But what about you guys today? Do you share the same sentiments? Do you perceive him to be more a Russian literary figure than a Ukrainian one? Is he a Ukrainian one at all??

On a related note is Andriewsky's comparison of then-contemporary Russian reviews vs. then-contemporary Ukrainian reviews of Gogol's works:

• Russian reviews:
  • "As the reviewer for Severnaia pchela (Northern Bee), Russia's most widely read newspaper, remarked on reading Gogol's Vechera na khutore bliz Dikan'ki (Evenings at a Farmstead near Dykanka, 1831), the 'Little Russian school' of writers was to be applauded for abandoning its efforts 'to preserve in all their purity the peculiarities of their dialect and the originality of a long-past lifestyle' and for leaving behind 'this … too local goal, and turn[ing] to deeper thought …”
  • "Russian critics such as Vissarion Belinsky praised Gogol as a genius for finding the 'universal and human' in Little Russian life."
• Ukrainian reviews:
  • "By contrast, the Ukrainian literary critic Andrii Storozhenko criticized the short stories for their many ethnographic, historical, and linguistic inaccuracies. Storozhenko believed that the Russian reviewers had praised Gogol's stories because 'in all likelihood they were unfamiliar with the ordinary way of life of the inhabitants of Little Russia.'"
  • "This view was echoed years later by Panteleimon Kulish. 'If the Russian reading public were educated in its native Slavic culture so as to be able to read Kvitka and Shevchenko freely, as familiar Slavic poets, then in those perfected mirrors of national sensibility, custom and tradition they would recognize the scandalous errors of Gogol's stories and would regret all the words that were wasted on shining ghosts from an inauthentic world.'"

First of all, fuck that first reviewer and his "deeper thought" comment. Second of all, apparently Gogol actually didn't know what (or how to write about what) Ukrainian life was really like, despite growing up that way. Wild.

Regardless, do these very different receptions also reflect modern sentiments? Do Russian readers notice the Ukrainian particularities in Gogol's works? Do Ukrainian readers consider them to be accurate?

On yet another note, and I'm getting very fundamental/technical here, but what about the transliteration of his name? My English-language copy of Dead Souls spells his name as Nikolai Gogol on the cover. Given that it's a translation of an originally-Russian text, it makes sense that the translator/editor/publisher would use the Russian transliteration of his name. And if he only wrote in Russian, then it also makes sense that the translations of his other texts have used and continue to use the Russian transliteration. The obvious result of this is that the general literary public knows Nikolai Gogol as, well, Nikolai Gogol. A Russian author, at least on the surface.

Should they, though? I get translations of his works attributing credit to "Nikolai Gogol," since they themselves were written in Russian. But is there an argument to be made for using the Ukrainian transliteration instead? Or is that just performative politics?

(Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't his name in Ukrainian written as Микола Гоголь? Mikola (or Mikolai? Mykola/Mykolai??) is not the same as Nikolai. I've also seen his last name transliterated from Ukrainian as >!Hohol!<, but I'm pretty sure that that's a slur. Point is, how different even is his name transliterated from Russian vs. from Ukrainian?)

———

Sources (in order of appearance):

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine (Anne Applebaum)

The Roots of Ukrainian Nationalism: Galicia as Ukraine's Piedmont (Paul Robert Magocsi)

"The Russian-Ukrainian Discourse and the Failure of the 'Little Russian Solution,' 1782–1917" in Culture, Nation, and Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter, 1600–1945 (Olga Andriewsky)

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (Serhii Plokhy), for the Shevchenko quote

I suspect millions of people have similar questions now after hearing about Zelenskyy's former press secretary Iuliia Mendel's Carlson interview, where she depicted her former boss as a dictator, probably no better than the Kremlin KGB thug.

I would love to see some credible facts, not emotional remarks about Iuliia Mendel, and her claims.

Mendel will be rich from her current book, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World, and/or the books she claimed to be writing, thanks to Carlson's promotion.

I have not read her book and do not plan to. I checked the reviews of her book from publications and readers out of curiosity. They do not seem to indicate she demonizes Zelenskyy in the book. They even suggest that her book compliments Zelenskyy.

Here is the top reader's review:

https://preview.redd.it/9vqoxbps9p0h1.png?width=1766&format=png&auto=webp&s=aaa60d771593c110d265d175e488739a6a06ca12

Does it mean that her view of Zelenskyy has had a 180° turn since publishing the book in 2022?