ABSTRACT
Language processes in the educational domain of Ukrainian and other postSoviet societies have usually been studied in terms of interplay between the greater role of the titular language, on the one hand, and linguistic rights of the Russian-speakers, on the other (Janmaat 2000; Bilaniuk and Melnyk 2008; Pavlenko 2011). The prominence of the ‘Russian question’ in education and other domains where linguistic rights are implemented results both from sheer numbers of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speakers and from the defense of their rights by the Russian kin-state and, in some countries, by influential domestic parties. The controversy over the alleged discrimination against Russian-speakers has diverted public and scholarly attention from problems of other minorities, which in some cases are much more severe. Moreover, it has thus been overseen that the educational situation differs considerably from one of these smaller groups to another (but see Stewart 2005).
