Summary 

“What’s in a Name: The First Language War of the 21st Century” explores how language policy in Ukraine has shaped national identity, political conflict, and personal experience. Using his own story as a starting point, the author describes how being compelled to adopt the Ukrainian version of his Russian name symbolised a broader pattern of linguistic enforcement that, in his view, marginalized Russian speakers for decades.

He argues that Ukraine’s 1996 constitutional decision to establish Ukrainian as the sole state language planted the seeds of long-term social tension, especially in a multilingual country where Russian functioned as a widespread vehicular language. Drawing on public-opinion data and linguistic theory, the essay contends that Ukrainian language policy evolved into a form of exclusion, ultimately contributing to political polarization, cultural alienation, and, indirectly, violent conflict.

The piece contrasts inclusive, organic models of language development—such as Kotliarevsky’s literary contributions—with modern policies that critics say restrict minority languages and equate identity with linguistic conformity. It concludes that Ukraine’s language struggle exemplifies a 21st-century “language war,” where issues of power and belonging overshadow linguistic diversity, and where the insistence on a single state language may have deepened, rather than resolved, national divisions.