Pending moderation
Hi there!
I've been studying Russian for a few months, and I really love that language.
I have a question about an Ukrainian band, called Quest Pistols.
WHY DO THEY SING IN RUSSIAN?
Wikipedia says that all of their lyrics are Russian.
So I was wondering..
Ukraine has 44,854,065 citizens...
While Russia has 143,300,000 citizens...
Do they sing in Russian because they want to be famous in Russia, too?
Is this a common thing in Ukraine?
What is the role played by Russian in Post-Soviet states?
What does Ukraine think about Russian language?
Thank you for reading this
We are native Russians, and my wife was raised in the Central part of Ukraine. People in the West of Ukraine, speak perfect Ukrainian, while the population of the Central and Eastern parts of that fascinating country is mixed. I have no idea re. that band, but it is possible that they simply DO NOT speak Ukrainian. Probably they had no chance to study it, for previously there were many Russian schools in Ukraine, where the students should study all the subjects in Russian, not Ukrainian. The policy of the Soviet authorities was similar to the German one in Western Poland: kids had to study only the Russian language, thus, they were "uprooted" from their native culture. It was the same in all the Soviet republics, and only Georgia had managed to withstand.
The language problem is extremely complicated, and the question is very sensitive to touch. However, it wouldn't be correct to think that the Russian-speaking Ukrainians are pro-Moscow oriented. They are Ukrainians okay.
Since the Ukrainian Government is more concerned on education than the Russian one, our local school teachers are used to textbooks and workbooks in Ukrainian (we live not far from the border.)
Thank you a lot for your answer, it really helped me to understand the relationship between those countries. :)
Just few other questions:
what do Russian think about Ukrainian?
Do they think they are better than the others?
Is Russian spoken in Russia different from Russian spoken in Ukraine?
And, finally (this might be a stupid question)
Why do some Russian comments on youtube end with these signs?
"хорошо сказал))))"
"Базара нет,какой романтический клип)))все во имя любви)))"
"смелей будь парень)"
"ха, согласен) у кого что болит, тот о том и говорит"
> what do Russian think about Ukrainian?
Unfortunately, Russians are scared of strangers, thus, Russians used to dislike any "abnormality". As I like to say, God likes varieties, but people don't. :-)
Though the younger generations of Russians travel a lot, and the "new" Russians are much more open and friendly than their ancestors.
> Do they think they are better than the others?
As I witnessed many times, Russians fell comfortable only in the environment they can comprehend. Thus, Russians tend to dislike any Ukrainian-speaking neighborhood.
> Is Russian spoken in Russia different from Russian spoken in Ukraine?
In Moscow or St Pete, yes. Now we live in the region which historically belonged to the Great Princedom of Lithuania. That is the (South-)Western part of Russia. There is a very specific accent in that area, which includes some traits of the Belorussian and Ukrainian languages. Soft "H" instead of the Muscovite strong "G", quite English "W" instead of "V" or "F". And so on. Yet I cannot claim that our dialect is close to Surzhyk spoken in Eastern Ukraine.
Hi,
I'm Russian and I personally have nothing against Ukrainian, a lot of Russians have relatives there. Ukraine used to be a part of Russian Empire and Ukraina is changed word "okraina" - outlying districts. And if you know there are 3 groups in Slavic languages, Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian are belonged to one group and we undestand each other well, I can understand 50 perсent of speach of a man who speaks pure Ukrainian, but it happens rarely. And what do you mean by "than the others"?
I'm agree with TsoiZhiv, you can go to any place in Ukraine and hear Russian speech, and an Ukrainian can go to any place in Russia and he will be understood. There isn't big difference between Russia and Ukraine, life in Russia is better than in Ukraine but it's not a reason to think of yourself better. And about singing in Russian for popularity, it's wrong, I think we have almost one music market, they can sing in Ukrainian and be popular and even Russian sometimes sing in Ukrainian, for example if you listen to Russian singer Pelageya you can hear her singing in Ukrainian. All this war between Russians and Ukrainians has been made by politicians.
I doubt that, just IMHO. Never heard about band that sings in Ukranian and is really popular in Russia at the same time.
Ruslana for example