The aim of this MA thesis is to analyze the importance of language in the formation of the Ukrainian national identity, while also taking into consideration aspects of language ideologies which shaped the status of the Ukrainian language throughout different historical periods. Moreover, this thesis analyzes the creation of the modern Ukrainian language and its importance for present-day Ukrainian national identity. This analysis has been conducted with the help of prominent works of various sociolinguists and historians. Their works help in understanding of the variety of historical and linguistic events that shaped the Ukrainian historical path towards independence and the creation of national language and identity. Furthermore, this thesis mostly concentrates on the complicated relation between Russia and Ukraine, which shaped the status and the development of the Ukrainian language. Despite the fact that Russian and Soviet language policies were sometimes relatively oppressive towards the Ukrainian language, Ukrainians were more or less able to develop their language relatively freely in certain historical periods. However, the main conclusion of this thesis is that in spite of the newly established “Ukrainization” policy of the independent Ukrainian state, Ukraine failed in the completion of the formation of its national identity in some parts of the present-day Ukraine. Therefore, it can be said that “Ukrainization” has not yet achieved its primary aim.