Financial Russification of Schools (1978–1983)

Administrative pressure on schools: pursuant to the resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers of 13 October 1978 No. 835, the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, by its resolution of 2 November 1978 No. 518, obliged the ministry of education of the Ukrainian SSR to introduce, from the 1980/81 school year, the study of the Russian language in the first grades of general-education schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction^[1].

The ideological exaltation of the metropole's language: the all-Union scientific-theoretical conference "The Russian Language — the Language of Friendship and Cooperation of the Peoples of the USSR" (Tashkent, 22–24 May 1979) adopted detailed recommendations on Russification - from organizing "the study of the Russian language in the senior groups of preschool institutions" to "the use of the Russian language in lessons in other school subjects" in the senior grades of national schools^[2].

Financial privileges for teaching in the metropole's language: pursuant to the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 26 May 1983 No. 473 "On additional measures for improving the study of the Russian language in general-education schools and other educational institutions of the union republics," the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, by a resolution of 10 June 1983 - signed by Shcherbytsky and Liashko, stamped "Not for the press" - raised from 1984 by 15 percent the salary rates of teachers of Russian language and literature and allowed classes of more than 25 pupils to be split into subgroups for Russian lessons^[2][3].