Breaking the Tongue: Language, Education, and Power in Soviet Ukraine, 1923-1934

In the 1920s and early 1930s, the Communist Party embraced a policy to promote national consciousness among the Soviet Union s many national minorities as a means of Sovietizing them. In Ukraine, Ukrainian-language schooling, coupled with pedagogical innovation, was expected to serve as the lynchpin of this social transformation for the republic s children.

The first detailed archival study of the local implications of Soviet nationalities policy, Breaking the Tongue examines the implementation of the Ukrainization of schools and children s organizations. Matthew D. Pauly demonstrates that Ukrainization faltered because of local resistance, a lack of resources, and Communist Party anxieties about nationalism and a weakening of Soviet power a process that culminated in mass arrests, repression, and a fundamental adjustment in policy.