The campaign for replacing Cyrillic with Latin in the Ukrainian language has switched into high gear again, of course, in the interest of European integration. This idea is by no means new, being mainly pushed by representatives of Galician, West-Ukrainian intellectuals. And it goes back to the early 19th century, although, unlike the present time, attempts to introduce the Latin alphabet for Galician Russinians residing in Austrian Empire did not pursue the political goals, sought by contemporary “reformers” – they just wanted to assure access of common people to written literacy.

We can also recall that at the very dawn of Soviet power, when everybody lived in anticipation of the allegedly impending world revolution, the idea of Latinization of Russian, Slavonic and all non-Slavonic languages of the USSR gained some momentum, but in the 1930s it was given up completely.

The current champions of Latinization in Ukraine are pushing for a split with Russia and East Ukraine, rather than the brotherhood of world nations, contrasting the West Ukrainian people who “have been European since times immemorial”, on the one hand, and people of Malorossiya, living on the other bank of the river Dnieper, on the other hand. This mental attitude will hardly precipitate national unity during such times of trouble. To the contrary, it will speed up disintegration. But who has ever been stopped in their passionate promotion of “big ideas” when faced with the threat of national disaster?

The issue of Latinization was raised under president Yushchenko as well, but then it was swept under the carpet. Nevertheless, there is even a certain commission (under the MFA), ostensibly elaborating on this issue unhurriedly. Specialists have already developed some norms of Latin spelling in Ukrainian, and the first articles in Ukrainian Latin have already printed in Ukrainian periodicals.

Many linguists believe that transition to Latin won’t facilitate the use of Ukrainian – if not for other reasons, then because there are notably fewer letters in Latin graphic compared to Cyrillic. Experts would also have to come up with some letter combinations to designate some sounds, not to mention the need to train a whole generation of teachers who would teach the “new” language. However, with the dramatic events unfolding now in Ukraine, policymakers regrettably do not often think about the long-term consequences or costs of the decisions they take.