Editing Ukrainian language (section)

====Khrushchev thaw====
[[File:Rouble-1961-Paper-1-Reverse.jpg|right|upright=1.15|thumb|While Russian was a de facto official language of the Soviet Union in all but formal name, all national languages were proclaimed equal. The name and denomination of [[Soviet rouble|Soviet banknotes]] were listed in the languages of all fifteen [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]]. On this 1961 1&nbsp;Rbl note, the Ukrainian for "one rouble", один карбованець (''odyn karbovanets`''), directly follows the Russian один рубль (''odin rubl`'').]]

After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of the Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as [[transfer of Crimea]] under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of the USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained).{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending the Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the ''lack of [[linguistic protectionism|protection]]'' against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The number of students in Russian-language in Ukraine schools was constantly increasing, from 14 percent in 1939 to more than 30 percent in 1962.<ref>{{cite book|first=Serhii|last=Plokhy|author-link=Serhii Plokhy|title=The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine|page=304|year=2015|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-141-98061-4}}</ref>