OT - Re: Madzhi script online; Ukrainian /g/

 --- John Cowan wrote:

> > Moreover the Ukrainian /g/ was for some reason
> > suppressed during Soviet times
>
> Part of Stalin's russification campaign, the same
> reason he suppressed
> the Roman Catholic-ness of the Ukrainian Church.
True. The Cyrillic G-stroke appears only in Ukrainian,
and that's why is was banned. BTW it's remarkable,
that Stalin and his successors succeeded quite well in
russifying a language spoken by over 50 million
people!

To be more exact about the church thing: in western
Ukraine the Greek-Catholic (Uniate) Church was
suppressed in favour of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
will in the rest of Ukraine the latter was suppressed
in favour of Russian Orthodoxy. So, it was not only
the Roman Catholic element in the Uniate church that
the authorities tried to eliminate; in 1946 the whole
church was forbidden (and its remnants severely
suppressed).
The Roman Catholic church had a slightly easier life;
basically, it was the church of the Polish minority
(plus a few Ukrainian, the so-called "Latynnyky").

Regards,
Jan


=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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