Displacement and Assimilation: Forced Migrations and Russification of Ukrainians from 1930 until 2023

The topic of the russification of Ukrainians is explored from various angles, however, there is limited coverage of the nexus between displacement and assimilation in the context of forced migrations and russification of Ukrainians. The imperialistic ideology which guided Russia throughout the history of its statehood resulted in the implementation of various assimilation strategies. In this thesis, I will focus on Ukraine and the implications of russification policies in the context of forced migration in the period from 1930 until 2023. Starting with Soviet times, I will present the mechanisms of forced migrations and tools of russification implemented by the communist government. I argue that apart from the ethnic cleansings aimed at identity erasure, other types of forced migrations were also tightly connected to russification. Therefore, various deportees and their families, especially minors, were targeted by the various assimilation and russification strategies, which are analysed in the contexts of language, education, religion, and identity. Nowadays, similar mechanisms of russification are applied by the Russian Federation not only on its territory, but also on the occupied Ukrainian lands: Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Therefore, I argue that Russia by using similar mechanisms of deportations and russification continues the assimilation policies of the Soviet regime, and as a result, Ukrainians “disappear”.