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The only state language of Ukraine is Ukrainian, even if a majority of the inhabitants has Russian as its first language. But phenomena of interference are so important that in fact a mixture of the two languages is widespread. Nonetheless, it is impossible to give any objective description of the sociolinguistic situation in Ukraine without a preliminary knowledge of the representations about language in Eastern Europe. The mixture of Russian and Ukrainian is called surzhyk, a metaphor coined after the name of a poor quality bread made of wheat and rye. If the idea of hybridation of language is so pejorative, it is because of an essentialist representation of language, based on the romantic idea that a language, as a living being, can only be pure, without any admixture. In fact, this organicist discourse on language aims at concealing a political aim?: giving an " objective ", or " natural " justification for state-building.