Chronology of Ukrainian language suppression
The chronology of Ukrainian language suppression presents a list of administrative actions aimed at limiting the influence and importance of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine. Language situation in Ukrainian lands before the 19th century Before the Russian annexation, there were several writing languages in Ukraine. Religious texts were dominated by the Ukrainian variant of Church Slavonic (the so-called Meletian, after the reforms Meletius Smotrytsky). The language of administration since the 16th and 17th centuries (for western Ukraine this process began as early as the 15th century) was Polish, as well as Latin. The significant degree of Polonization of the Ukrainian elites led to the fact that Polish was also used in other areas, and in the 17th century it became the main language of religious polemics. Ukrainians who did not undergo language polonization used Church Slavonic in high-ranking texts (liturgical, theological, dramatic texts, poetry), and Ruthenian in lower-ranking texts (tales, private documents), also known as prosta mova (). The latter initially developed in the Belarusian territories and had many features of the spoken Belarusian language, but over time it took over the features of the local language in the Ukrainian territories, and also borrowed much from Church Slavonic and Polish.