The Quest for the Language of Socialist Modernisation

This article examines the development and transformation of Ukrainian scientific terminology during the early 20th century, particularly under Soviet rule. It traces the roots of terminological efforts in the 19th century, when language planning in Galicia and Ukraine reflected competing imperial influences and nationalist aspirations. The study underscores the nexus of cultural, political and epistemic interests in the shaping of scientific language, noting the transition from vernacular-focused Romantic ideals to the evolving policies of the Soviet korenizatsiia period. In the 1920s, the Ukrainian Institute for Scientific Language led the effort to standardise terminology, aligning with Soviet policies of Ukrainisation/ korenizatsiia . However, by the 1930s, Stalinist policies reversed earlier gains, replacing national vocabularies with Russified terms and persecuting many language policymakers and scholars that the Soviet regime had supported only a few years earlier

Linguistics · Modernization theory · Political science · Ukrainian · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Law · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Philosophy