LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE STATE LANGUAGE AS THE IDENTIFICATION OF UKRAINIAN NATION

The article reveals the legal aspects of the state language as a means of identifying the Ukrainian nation. The results of the research of Razumkov Center on the assessment of citizens of the basic principles of the language and cultural policy of the state were analyzed. The scientific novelty lies in that the study proposes practical measures to ensure the prestige of the state language (the adoption of a conceptually new framework law in which language should be understood as an ethnonational attribute rather than a territorial one; qualitatively improve the socio-economic and political situation in the state; organize the functioning state free-of-charge courses for studying the Ukrainian language; adhere to the legislative requirements regarding the use of Ukrainian language in public spheres). In order to guarantee the language rights of national minorities in the field of education, it is proposed to amend Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine «On Education». Recently the tendency of recognizing Ukrainian as a native language is growing. However, this does not affect the existence of actual bilingualism in the state. Under such conditions Ukraine must, on the one hand, take measures that would strengthen the legal status of Ukrainian language as a state language, and, on the other hand, ensure a free development, use and protection of the languages of national minorities, including Russian.